The attorney for the man who shot the video of black jogger Ahmaud Arbery’s shooting death said his client has taken a voluntary lie detector test that confirmed he was not involved in the slaying, according to reports.
“Contrary to speculation, the polygraph examination confirms that on Feb. 23 2020, the day of the shooting, William ‘Roddie’ Bryan did not have any conversation with either Gregory or Travis McMichael prior to the shooting,” Kevin Gough said Monday night, referring to the father and son charged with the murder, Action News Jax reported.
“Nor did William ‘Roddie’ Bryan have any conversation with anyone else that day prior to the shooting about criminal activity in the neighborhood,” he added during a news conference at the Glynn County Courthouse.
Gough said the results of the polygraph, which Bryan took voluntarily, have been shared with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
The attorney noted the test is not considered admissible in court but does show that Bryan was unarmed at the time of the shooting, did not have any conversation with the suspects before the shooting and was unaware of any plan to take a life, according to First Coast News.
Bryan began recording the footage shortly before Gregory, 64, and Travis, 34, stopped Arbery with their truck and confronted him as he ran down Holmes Road in Brunswick, Georgia, on Feb. 23 during what his family says was a jog .
“Without his video there would be no case,” Gough said.
Police reports show Bryan – who has always insisted he was just a good Samaritan — tried to block Arbery himself while the 25-year-old was running down Burford Drive, the news outlet reported.
But Gough said his client was just a witness and not a “vigilante,” a characterization the attorney said was being perpetuated by Arbery’s family and its legal counsel.
The attorney also said Bryan has lost his job, received death threats because of the video and has been in hiding along with his fiancée.
“Mr. Bryan is not your enemy,” Gough said, according to CNN. “Please stop, if not for the sake of my client’s family, then for the sake of the Arbery family and the cause you fight for.”
He added: “Killing off the star witness for the prosecution will not help bring Ahmaud’s killers to justice.” The McMichaels are charged with murder and aggravated assault in Arbery’s death, but those arrests weren’t made until after the video surfaced.
They have told investigators they thought Arbery was burglarizing a home under construction in the Satilla Shores neighborhood on the day of the shooting.
Meanwhile, an attorney for Arbery’s family said during an interview on CNN Monday night that they want Bryan arrested despite his attorney’s claim that he was not involved in the death.
“We are going to continue to push for the arrest of William Bryan for recording and participating in the ambush of Ahmaud Arbery,” S. Lee Merritt told CNN’s Don Lemon.
“His family deserves justice from not only the two men who have been arrested, but from anyone who participated in that act,” Merritt added.
