Security tops $1M for Georgia murder trial of three white men

BRUNSWICK, Ga. — The trial of three white men who chased and killed Ahmaud Arbery cost taxpayers $1.08 million for security and other expenses related to the high-profile case, which sometimes drew large crowds to the courthouse but resulted in no violence.

Commissioners in coastal Glynn County, Ga., said during a Tuesday meeting they spent the money on overtime and other costs stemming from having extra sheriff’s deputies, police and other public safety personnel on the clock during the fiveweek trial, The Brunswick News reported.

Father and son Greg and Travis McMichael armed themselves and pursued Arbery in a pickup after spotting the 25-year-old Black man running in their neighborhood Feb. 23, 2020. A neighbor, William “Roddie” Bryan, joined the chase and recorded cellphone video of Travis McMichael blasting Arbery at close range with a shotgun.

The video sparked a national outcry over Arbery’s killing when it was leaked online more than two months later, and officials in the port city of Brunswick and surrounding Glynn County prepared for the possibility of violent protests when the case went to trial in mid-October.

A jury convicted the McMichaels and Bryan of murder and other crimes Nov. 24.