About The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (June 5, 2020)
LOCA^OP HEADLINES The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com Friday, June 5, 2020 3A Ga. Department of Natural Resources encourages public to help count birds BY KELSEY P0D0 kpodo@gainesvilletimes.com Attention all Hall County bird watchers and avian fanatics. It’s your time to hop out of the nest and soar. The Georgia Department of Natu ral Resources’ Wildlife Resources Division is encouraging the public to report bald eagle nests to help moni tor the species’ population in the state. On Wednesday, June 3, the agency reported that Georgia’s bald eagle nesting numbers remained strong. However, the successful nest rate dropped 30% lower than average in counties north of Atlanta, including Hall, Rabun, Dade, Bartow, Floyd and others. Bob Sargent, leader of the 2020 survey, said substantial rainfall from January through March likely contrib uted to the lower nest productivity in North Georgia. “Populations of many wildlife spe cies exhibit fluctuations in repro ductive success from year to year, sometimes wildly so, and these fluc tuations are often related to bad tim ing of unusually cold or rainy spells,” he said in a statement. “... The over all productivity trend for bald eagles nests in Georgia continues to look healthy.” Sargent spent time in January, March and April counting eagle nest territories via helicopter in three regions of the state: six coastal coun ties, a section of East Georgia and the counties north of Atlanta. His report also included results from seven nests monitored by volunteers or DNR staff. The 2020 survey estimated 126 young eagles fledged from 82 success ful nests in Georgia. A successful nest means that at least one juvenile bird grew the necessary plumage to leave the nest. This rate of 1.5 fledglings per nest matched the long-term average. Peter Gordon, director of educa tion at Elachee Nature Science Center and longtime birder, said if people are looking for eagle nests around Hall, he would recommend traveling north of Don Carter State Park. Jim Ozier, wildlife biologist with Georgia Power, said large bodies of water like Lake Lanier are prime areas for eagle spotting. He has a couple of tips, so people don’t confuse eagle nests with osprey nests. While osprey like to raise their young out in the open on dead trees or atop utility poles, he said eagles prefer a more sheltered home like evergreen trees. In North Georgia, he said they typically settle on pine trees. “I’ve never seen one in an exposed structure,” Ozier said. “They’re usually near a significant amount of water, reservoir or major river. There’s a balance of being next to the water and high up.” Although eagles and osprey are both large birds of prey, Gordon said the two have distinctive appearances. Ospreys, which are smaller, have white on their chests; whereas, bald eagles only have white plumage on their heads and tails. “Osprey have incredibly long wings, but when you see them compared to an eagle, it’s a significant difference,” Gordon said. “They’re strong, power ful pumpers of their wings. I recom mend getting a pair of binoculars.” To report a nest, visit georgiawild- life.com/bald-eagle, call 478- 994-1438 or email Sargent at bob.sargent@dnr. ga.gov. r-T The Georgia Department of Natural Resources’ Wildlife Resources Division is encouraging the public to report bald eagle nests to aid its monitoring efforts. Courtesy of Georgia Department of Natural Resources HATE ■ Continued from 1A “I will always be open-minded to read what versions of the bills come forward,” Dunahoo said. An attempt to reach Dubnik for comment Thurs day, June 4, was unsuccessful. “At the end of the day, what we want is legislation that creates much more deterrence to the things that we’re seeing happening in the U.S. right now,” Hawkins said. Sen. Butch Miller, R-Gainesville, said he feels such a bill will require a great deal of patience and cooperation to create legislation that is both passable and enforceable. “The hate crimes bill will be a deli cate process, and it’s not as simple as either side would have you believe. There is no place Miller for racism or injus tice in our society or in our govern ment,” he said. Miller said there are potentially other substitute bills that have been drafted. “There are many legislators on both sides of the aisle that are very passionate about the issue, and right fully so. The scenes that we have witnessed in the last few weeks are troubling to say the least,” Miller said. Miller said he feels the manda tory minimums take power from the judge regarding justice for the victim and rehabilitation for the offender. “We want to make sure that we don’t create a circumstance that exacerbates problems that we already have in terms of incarcera tion of... non-violent juvenile offend ers,” he said. State investigator testifies shooter used racist slur as Arbery lay dying BY RUSS BYNUM Associated Press BRUNSWICK — A state investigator testi fied Thursday that a white man was heard saying a racist slur as he stood over Ahmaud Arbery’s body, moments after fatally shooting the black man with a pump-action shotgun. The inflammatory revelation came amid a week of angry nationwide protests over law enforcement biases against black victims that erupted after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. In a hearing to determine whether there was enough evidence to proceed with a mur der trial, the lead Georgia Bureau of Investiga tion agent in the case testified that Travis and Greg McMichael and a third man in another pickup, William “Roddie” Bryan, used their trucks to chase down and box in Arbery, who repeatedly reversed directions and ran into a ditch while trying to escape. Travis McMichael then got out of his truck and confronted Arbery, later telling police he shot him in self-defense after Arbery refused his order to get on the ground, GBI agent Rich ard Dial said. He said a close examination of the video of the shooting shows the first shot was to Arbery’s chest, the second was to his hand, and the third hit his chest again before he collapsed in the road in a subdivision in the port town of Brunswick. “Mr. Bryan said that after the shooting took place before police arrival, while Mr. Arbery was on the ground, that he heard Tra vis McMichael make the statement, ‘f - - - ing n---er,’” Dial said. Bryan gave investigators the information roughly a week after the McMichaels’ arrest, but there’s no indication he told Glynn County investigators before that, Dial added. Lee Merritt, an attorney for Arbery’s fam ily, told reporters outside the courthouse that prosecutors had warned the family before the hearing of the coming testimony about the slur. “It was still very difficult to hear in the context of a prolonged chase, that after he murdered Ahmaud Arbery and stood over his body, he used that racial epithet,” Merritt said. The lawyer said Thursday’s testimony revealed that “racism was at the heart” of G. McMichael T. McMichael Bryan Arbery’s slaying. Arbery’s mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones called the release of new details in court “very, very heartbreaking.” “He was afraid,” Cooper-Jones said of her slain son. “Life had placed him in a position where I couldn’t protect him, and he wasn’t able to protect himself.” At the conclusion of the probable cause hearing Thursday, Magistrate Court Judge Wallace Harrell found that there was enough evidence for the cases against all three defen dants to proceed. “Ahmaud Arbery was chased, hunted down and ultimately executed at the hands of these men,” prosecutor Jesse Evans told the judge. “He was on a run on a public road in a public subdivision. He was defenseless and unarmed.” Under questioning by Jason Sheffield, an attorney for Travis McMichael, Dial said Tra vis told police he raised his shotgun at Arbery from roughly 90 feet away and told him to stop and get on the ground. That’s when Arbery ran around the passen ger side of Travis’ truck, and the two men met in front of it. Dial said Travis told police Arbery “squared up” like he was going to attack. “There’s a statement that he might have had his hand on his shirt,” Dial said. “Travis McMichael said his adrenaline was pumping and it all happened very quickly.” He said Travis then fired the first shot into Arbery’s chest. Sheffield argued that the pursuit began with a legitimate concern about past crimes in the neighborhood that escalated right before the shooting. “Travis McMichael used self-defense when he was attacked by Mr. Arbery,” Sheffield said. “I don’t think it was self-defense by Mr. McMichael,” Dial said. “I believe it was self- defense by Mr. Arbery.” The testimony presented Thursday raises questions about the idea that the McMichaels and Bryan were legitimately carrying out a citizens’ arrest of a suspected burglar. It also could factor into a federal investigation into whether hate crime charges are warranted. Dial testified that Greg McMichael told police that “he didn’t know if Mr. Arbery had stolen anything or not, but he had a gut feel ing” that Arbery had committed prior break- ins in the neighborhood. The investigator testified that police body camera footage showed a Confederate flag sticker on a toolbox in Travis’ truck and that investigators discovered at least two more racial slurs in messages on his phone. In response to questioning from Bryan’s attorney Kevin Gough, Dial testified that he believes Bryan joined the chase because he saw a black man running down the street with a truck following and drew conclusions based on racial bias. There’s evidence of Bryan’s “racist attitudes in his communications,” Dial said, referring to comments found on his cellphone. The investigator added that several resi dents of the subdivision where Arbery was killed told investigators they had seen him running in the neighborhood previously. Dial said the three defendants are the only known witnesses to the shooting and investi gators have found no other video of Arbery’s final moments other than what Bryan recorded. Arbery was killed Feb. 23 after Travis McMichael, 34, and his father, Greg McMi chael, 64, gave chase when they spotted the 25-year-old black man running in their neigh borhood. Bryan said he saw them driving by and joined the chase, Dial said. It wasn’t until May 7 — two days after Bryan’s cellphone video leaked online and stirred a national out cry — that the defendants were charged. The McMichaels both wore masks as they sat side-by-side watching the hearing onscreen at the Glynn County jail. The judge rejected defense motions to have them brought to the courtroom, citing emergency precautions because of the coronavirus pandemic. Bryan waived his presence at the hearing.
