Travis McMichael used a racist slur just after Ahmaud Arbery was shot, according to the person who filmed the encounter

• Three white men will stand trial in the February shooting death of Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old black man, in Brunswick, Georgia, a judge ruled on Thursday.
• Gregory McMichael, 64, and his son, Travis McMichael, 34, face felony murder and aggravated assault charges. The younger McMichael pulled the trigger during an altercation with Arbery.
• William Bryan, a witness who helped the McMichaels corner Arbery and also filmed the fatal encounter, was arrested for felony murder and criminal attempt to commit false imprisonment.
• In a probable cause hearing Thursday, a Georgia Bureau of Investigation special agent testified that Bryan said Travis McMichael said the words 'f---ing n-----" after Arbery was shot and killed.

Travis McMichael, one of the three people charged with killing Ahmaud Arbery, used a racist slur just after firing three shots from a pump-action shotgun, according to William Bryan, who filmed the encounter and is a co-defendant in the criminal case.

The detail was revealed by Georgia Bureau of Investigation Special Agent Richard Dial, who testified about various aspects of the case in a court hearing Thursday.

"Mr. Bryan said that after the shooting took place, before the police's arrival, while Mr. Arbery was on the ground, that he heard Travis McMichael make the statement: 'F---ing n-----," Dial said.

Magistrate Court Judge Wallace Harrell ruled that there is sufficient evidence for the cases against all three defendants to go to trial, according to the Associated Press.

"Ahmaud Arbery was chased, hunted down and ultimately executed at the hands of these men," said Cobb County prosecutor Jesse Evans. "He was on a run on a public road in a public subdivision. He was defenseless and unarmed."

Arbery went out for a jog in Brunswick, Georgia, around 1 p.m. on February 23, only to catch the attention of Gregory McMichael and Travis McMichael, who pursued the 25-year-old black man.

They had help from Bryan, who also lived in the neighborhood, who joined in the hunt and filmed the deadly encounter.

Dial described how Travis McMichael and Bryan used their trucks to chase down and corner Arbery, who tried repeatedly to switch directions and even leaped into a ditch in a bid to escape.

Investigators found a palm print on the rear door of Bryan's truck, a dent, and white cotton fibers that "we attribute to contact with Mr. Arbery," Dial said.

'I don't think it was self-defense by Mr. McMichael — I think it was self-defense by Mr. Arbery.'

When Arbery wound up sandwiched between the two vehicles, Travis McMichael got out of his truck — which was parked to block a street in the Satilla Shores neighborhood — and confronted Arbery.

He told police that he opened fire in self-defense because Arbery ignored his orders to stop and get on the ground, and instead "squared up" as if he was going to attack. After seeing Travis McMichael standing by the driver's side door, Arbery skirted around and they met in front of the truck.

"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."

That's when Travis McMichael opened fire.

The first shot was to Arbery's chest, the second was to his right wrist, and the third was also to his chest, Dial said. "Mere seconds after the first shot" was fired by Travis McMichael, the front of Arbery's white cotton T-shirt was "saturated with blood," he testified.

Dial also told Jason Sheffield, Travis McMichael's attorney, that the younger McMichael had raised his shotgun and pointed it Arbery's direction when the two were nearly 90 feet apart.

"I don't think it was self-defense by Mr. McMichael — I think it was self-defense by Mr. Arbery," said Dial.

He continued: "I believe Mr. Arbery was being pursued, and he ran till he couldn't run anymore, and it was [either] turn his back to a man with a shotgun or fight with his bare hands against the man with the shotgun. He chose to fight. I believe Mr. Arbery's decision was to just try to get away, and when he felt like he could not escape, he chose to fight."

After Arbery stumbled and fell facedown, Gregory McMichael rolled the man over to check if he was armed, a police report said. He wasn't.

Travis McMichael and Gregory McMichael, both wearing face masks, attended the hearing virtually from the Glynn County Detention Center. Bryan waived his right to appear.

And attorneys for the McMichaels insisted they are innocent.

"Travis has been vilified before his voice could even be heard," his legal team in a statement, CNN reported. "The truth in this case will exonerate Travis."

Gregory McMichael's attorney, Laura Hogue added: "So often the public accepts a narrative-driven by an incomplete set of facts, one that vilifies a good person.

A 'gut feeling' that Ahmaud Arbery may have been responsible for prior break-ins

For more than two months after that deadly encounter between Arbery and the McMichaels, the white father-and-son duo — aged 64 and 34 respectively — roamed free. Two district attorneys recused themselves over conflicts of interest, with one telling police that there were "no grounds for an arrest."

Video of the altercation that ended Arbery's life emerged on social media on May 5, sparking outrage, protests, and calls for justice.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation took over the case on May 5. Agents arrested the McMichaels on May 7 and Director Vic Reynolds announced on May 8 that there was "sufficient probable cause" to charge the pair with felony murder and aggravated assault. They were booked into Glynn County Jail and denied bond.

Bryan, 50, was arrested on May 21 for felony murder and criminal attempt to commit false imprisonment, the GBI said in a statement. He saw the McMichaels when they passed his house while chasing Arbery — they told police they thought he resembled a burglary suspect — so he got into his car and helped corner Arbery.

Dial spoke about a phone call made to Gregory McMichael when he was in custody that shed light on the way he views Bryan.

"Gregory McMichael is on the phone with a caller and the caller asks him about Mr. Bryan," Dial said. "At first, Mr. McMichael says he can't talk about it and then he says that Mr. Bryan is an ally."

Dial testified also that Arbery enjoyed running. Gregory McMichael was working on a boat outside the McMichael residence when he saw Arbery jog by. Recognizing him from surveillance footage of a house that's under construction nearby, the elder McMichael followed his "instinct" when enlisting his son to follow Arbery through their neighborhood, Dial said.

Gregory McMichael told police that "he didn't know if Mr. Arbery had stolen anything or not, but he had a gut feeling that he may have been responsible" for recent burglaries in the neighborhood, Dial added.

Dial also testified that investigators found a Confederate sticker on a toolbox in Travis McMichael's truck. Reviewing his cell phone data and social media footprint led them to even more racial slurs.

In one case, he responded to a social media video saying, "That would've only been better if he had blown that f---ing n-----'s head off," Dial said. Also, Travis McMichael, who worked as a boarding officer with the US Coast Guard, said in texts that "he loved his job because he was out on a boat and there were no n-----s anywhere," he testified.

Georgia doesn't have a hate crime law. The U.S. Department of Justice said on May 11 that it is "assessing all the evidence to determine whether federal hate crime charges are appropriate." Dial's testimony could play a part in a federal investigation into whether hate crime charges should be leveled against the defendants.

Arbery's death sparked peaceful protests in Georgia, which were followed by the March shooting death of Breonna Taylor in Kentucky. But George Floyd's police killing on May 25 in Minneapolis escalated racial tensions to a fever pitch. Since then, demonstrations, often devolving into chaos, vandalism, arson, and looting, have erupted from coast to coast in the United States. Thousands around the world are protesting in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement.

Prominent civil rights attorney Ben Crump is on the legal team for both the Arbery and Floyd families.

A crowd gathered outside the courthouse in Brunswick on Thursday, and stood in the rain, chanting "No bond." Gov. Brian Kemp has promised a "strong state law enforcement presence" during the hearing, the Associated Press reported.

This article has been updated.

• Read more:
• Ahmaud Arbery's murder shows how hard it is to prosecute cops, or even ex-cops
• The shooting death of Ahmaud Arbery: A timeline of a case that's gripping the nation
• The sister of Ahmaud Arbery's accused killer posted pictures of his dead body to Snapchat, and said it's because she's a 'true crime fan'
• 'I should have stopped them': An unsigned note was left at the memorial site of Ahmaud Arbery's killing
• One of Ahmaud Arbery's alleged killers had a confrontation with him 2 weeks before his death, neighbor says
• Gregory McMichael, who is charged in the killing of Ahmaud Arbery, worked for years in DA Jackie Johnson's office without required gun training