The second, uncoordinated truck joining in the 4-5 minute attempt to catch Arbery really did factor into his death.
Think about it. What the McMichaels were doing was illegal. Bryan is the only one at that point who witnessed a felony. He automatically assumed, from "instict" (aka ingrained racism, his cell phone messages were apparently quite filled with unprintable words) that instead of Ahmaud being the victim of a crime that he was escaping from a witnessed crime.
I highly doubt the McMichaels would have chased a white woman who resembled half of the couple who had also been in the house at night who was "hauling ass" down the street -- or if they did, it would have been to ask her if she was okay -- they also may not have grabbed guns (though some paranoid ppl live armed).
And I also highly doubt that Bryan would have said "You got her?" to two men in a truck chasing a white woman on foot who is running away, then attempt to "help" catch her. He instead would have likely thought she was the victim of a crime. As Ahmaud was.
Bryan was essentially criminally stupid. And I'm glad this time the criminally stupid got convicted.
Also, regardless of if you credit the GBI's attempt to recreate the path of the chase with Bryan or really believe he tried to hit him wth the truck, in the end.... two trucks not immediately coordinating with each other by radio means there is room for extremely critical error. Like in the end deciding to follow Ahmaud again while he was running, in the left lane instead of the right from the video, and ran him into the McMichaels with their guns out.
His felony offenses clearly contributed to Ahmaud's death. They did not convict him of malice murder (I'm wondering now if that's why they wanted to watch the tape and hear Greg's 911 call -- to decide if he should also get malice murder), meaning they did not believe he acted with "an abandoned and malignant heart". But under Georgia law, if your actions constitute a felony and those actions substantially contribute to someone's death, you are also guilty of murder.
No, he didn't have a gun. So he wasn't convicted on that count. They agreed that he was not truly a party to the aggravated assault that involved firearms. But the rest of it.... he shoulda called 911 first, then turned on the camera, at the very least.
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