BRUNSWICK, Ga. – A Glynn County Police Department incident report from Feb. 11 details an encounter between murder suspect Travis McMichael and an unidentified man.
McMichael reported a burglary in the Brunswick neighborhood of Satilla Shores, but the incident was later downgraded to a “trespassing” report.
The report says McMichael spotted a man described by Glynn County Officer Robert Rash’s third-party characterization as a “lighter-skinned black male, slender build, approximately 5′10′-6′ tall, both arms looked to be covered in tattoos."
Rash mentioned that this description matched that of several previous reports in the area and that the neighborhood had been communicating about them via social media.
“A description of the unknown male has been distributed throughout the neighborhood’s Facebook page and NextDoor app with negative results as in identifying the unknown male," Rash’s report said. “I have also canvassed the neighborhood while on day shift where I spoke to many residents that have never seen the male before.”
News4Jax was granted access to a private Facebook group called “Satilla Shores Homeowners” by one of its members and that access was made Wednesday.
The names and identifying information of all members of the group have been redacted from the images included in the article.
A post from Feb. 11, shows the neighborhood’s communication amid the reported trespassing.
"Lock your cars and your houses," a member posted. "Prowlers in the neighborhood again. Police are patrolling."
On January 2, the day after McMichael reported a gun had been stolen from his unlocked truck, an administrator of the Facebook group posted a warning to residents from a neighborhood about a mile away.
"Make sure you lock your vehicles at night," the post said. "The Royal Oaks subdivision was hit last night. There was a black male going house to house, going through vehicles and a dark green Ford Expedition going along with him so keep an eye out."
The post advised that residents should contact the police if they see the above-mentioned vehicle.
Several previous posts mention a black, male intruder or suspicious vehicles in the neighborhood.
A post from Nov. 18 described a black male at the “same house” and a white male and female.
The owner of a building under construction provided video clips to investigators, including one captured on Feb. 23 that was later confirmed to show Ahmaud Arbery in the moments before his death.
The owner of the camera, Larry English, said he could not identify any of the people captured on his motion-activated cameras and that those same cameras never gathered any evidence of a crime.
In a news conference Friday, GBI Director Vic Reynolds said Facebook messages, including ones posted by neighbors in the Satilla Shores Facebook page, could end up in the case file handed over to special prosecutor Joyette Holmes.