Security for Arbery death trial cost taxpayers $1.08 million

BRUNSWICK, Ga. (AP) — Officials say the trial of three men who chased and killed Ahmaud Arbery cost taxpayers $1.08 million for security and related expenses. The Brunswick News reports commissioners in Glynn County, Georgia, spent the money on overtime and other costs stemming from having extra sheriff’s deputies, police and other public safety workers on the clock during the five-week trial that began in mid-October and ended the day before Thanksgiving. Father and son Greg and Travis McMcMichael and their neighbor, William “Roddie” Bryan, were convicted of murder in the February 2020 killing of Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man who was pursued and shot while running in the defendants’ neighborhood. Large crowds sometimes gathered outside the courthouse during the trial, but there was no violence.