A severe drought has resulted in wildfires in South Georgia and has caused haze in some areas of metro Atlanta.
Those conditions prompted the Cobb Fire Marshal on Wednesday to issue an outdoor burning ban “until further notice.”
Cobb Fire and Emergency Services referenced a county ordinance that authorizes the fire marshal “to ban any or all forms of outdoor burning when atmospheric or local conditions make outdoor fires hazardous.
“All outdoor burning is prohibited during this time to help reduce fire risk and to protect our community. We appreciate your cooperation in helping keep Cobb County safe.”
The ban comes a week before the statewide outdoor burning ban that takes place each year from May 1-Sept. 30. During that period, “you may burn limited yard debris such as leaves, pine straw, and small limbs from growth on your property.”
The lack of rain has caused wildfires in southern Georgia, which has been under a general burn ban. More than 16,000 acres of have burned and Gov. Brian Kemp issued a state of emergency for that part of the state.
Almost all of Georgia has been experiencing drought in the spring. Rain is in the forecast for Cobb County early next week, as dry, low-humidity weather continues.
State officials predict they’ll be able to contain the south Georgia wildfires by the end of May.
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Two brothers are being held without bond after they got into a physical altercation Wednesday in front of a home in an East Cobb neighborhood.
Warrants for Franklin Dayne Hudson, 33, and Kyle Robert Hudson, 30, said they have been charged with felony counts of aggravated assault, and misdemeanor charges of fighting in a public place and criminal trespass.
The warrants state that the incident took place Wednesday morning at a home on Ridgetree Drive in the Sentinel Lake subdivision.
Franklin Hudson is accused of hitting his brother’s motorcycle with a baseball bat after a verbal argument about money, and then throwing the bat in Kyle Hudson’s direction, according to the warrants.
Kyle Hudson is accused of throwing a crowbar at Franklin Hudson, and his vehicle.
The warrants state that “the situation escalated and got physical. The Physical altercation happened on the roadway” in front of the Ridgetree Lane home.
The warrants said the motorcycle’s tail lights and exhausts were damaged in the incident.
Both men were booked into the Cobb County Adult Detention Center Wednesday night, according to Cobb Sheriff’s Office records.
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Cobb Police on Monday arrested a woman for prostitution near Wheeler High School and also charged her with two counts of bribery for offering officers sexual favors in exchange for releasing her.
According to an arrest warrant, Zulibeth Sarai Worsley, with an address listed at Harold Dean Drive in Northeast Cobb, was walking northbound along Holt Road near the Wheeler campus around 8:20 a.m. on Monday with a “lewd appearance,” topless and with her pants partially down, exposing her breasts and buttocks.
When Cobb Police arrived, officers said she told them she was “offering services to get money for a place to stay and that it was legal for her to do so.”
After she was charged with prostitution, according to the warrant, the woman said she told the officers she would perform oral sex for them if they let her go.
Worsley was charged with misdemeanor counts of prostitution and public indecency and two felony counts of bribery offering benefit to a representative of state or political subdivision.
She was taken into custody at the Cobb County Adult Detention Center later Monday and remains there on a $3,520 bond, according to her Cobb Sheriff’s Office booking report.
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The Georgia Bureau of Investigation said Wednesday that Cobb Police shot and killed a man who led them on a manhunt Tuesday after they tried to serve him with an arrest warrant for murder.
The GBI said in a release Wednesday that Damian Strozier, 31, was located by Cobb SWAT officers around 7:40 p.m. Tuesday in the woods behind an apartment complex on Leland Drive near Windy Hill Road and Interstate 75, not far from the site of the initial confrontation.
The GBI said that several officers shot at Strozier, “hitting him multiple times. Strozier was pronounced dead on scene.”
Strozier had been wanted by Atlanta Police for hitting a female pedestrian with a motor scooter last month and who later died at a hospital.
Cobb Police were trying to serve the warrant Tuesday morning when they said Strozier aimed a gun at them, and an offer shot at him in response.
Strozier managed to flee the scene on foot, and police issued a warning to the public and blocked off the area for several hours.
Police said no officers were injured.
The GBI said it will conduct a full investigation into the incident, since it is officer-involved, and turn its report over to the Cobb District Attorney for review.
Updated 10:15 pm Tuesday:
Cobb Police said Tuesday night that the suspect has been “located” and there is no longer a threat to the public, but they offered no further details.
UPDATED REPORT:
Cobb Police have identified the fugitive suspect as Damian Strozier, 31, and issued a mug shot as they continue their manhunt for him.
He is wanted for murder and likely escaped on foot after officers tried to serve a warrant in the area of Leland Road and Windy Hill Road.
Police said the suspect pointed his gun at an officer, who shot at him.
Strozier is described by police as a black male, 5-foot-6 and 135 pounds.
Police said Strozier “should be considered armed and dangerous. If you see this individual, do not approach. Call 911 immediately.”
ORIGINAL REPORT:
Cobb Police said Tuesday afternoon that a suspect they tried to serve with a murder warrant got away after an officer shot at him in the Windy Hill Road area near Interstate 75.
Police said that the suspect, who was not identified, fled on foot around 1 p.m. in the area of Leland Road and Windy Hill Road after an armed confrontation.
In a social media posting, Cobb Police said that the suspect pointed his weapon at an officer, who returned fire.
But the suspect got away, and “there is a significant law enforcement presence to locate him. No officers were injured.”
Police are asking the public to avoid the area and to seek alternate traffic routes. Anyone with information about the incident or who sees “suspicious persons or activity” in the area is asked to call Cobb County 911.
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Cobb Police said Monday they’ve arrested a man they say tried to run down an officer on Terrell Mill Road, and who fled the scene after an officer shot at his vehicle.
Sgt. Eric Smith said that Quartavious Z. Greene, 40, who has an East Cobb address, is being held without bond at the Cobb County Adult Detention Center.
According to his booking report, Greene was taken into custody on Thursday.
He is charged with felony counts of aggravated assault on an officer, two counts of interference with government property and misdemeanor counts of willful obstruction of a law enforcement officer and improper stopping on a roadway.
Police said that officers were called to the intersection of Terrell Mill Road and Brookview Drive—the entrance to the Terrell Mill Estates subdivision—around 5:45 a.m. on Sunday, April 12, in response to to a report of a driver asleep in a black Mercedes SUV.
Greene’s arrest warrant stated that the vehicle “was stopped long enough to raise the concern of a nearby citizen prompting them to call 911.”
When they arrived, officers saw a driver asleep inside the vehicle, according to police, and they placed a patrol car in front of the Mercedes, which was flanked at the back by a parked fire truck.
But police said that as officers woke up the driver, he refused to follow repeated commands to come out of the Mercedes.
According to the warrant, the suspect “reversed his vehicle into a parked firetruck before accelerating it towards” one of the officers “in a manner which was likely to or could actually result in serious bodily injury or death.”
Police said in their release last week that an officer fired at the vehicle, and it was unclear whether the suspect had been hit.
Greene’s warrant states that the Mercedes struck a police car as it fled the scene. Officers followed on a brief pursuit southbound on Terrell Mill Road, but they lost contact.
Smith said Monday that the incident remains under investigation by the Cobb Police Major Crimes Unit and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, since it involves an officer-involved shooting.
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Cobb Fire and Emergency Services is investigating a house fire that broke out early Friday morning in a subdivision off Johnson Ferry Roa.
The fire took place at a home on Savannah Ridge Drive, in the Savannah Ridge subdivision, located close to Cobb Fire Station 15.
Lt. Stephen Bennett of Cobb Fire said that the fire likely started in a bedroom and spread into the attic.
He said that crews arrived on the scene and put out the fire before it spread through the rest of the home and conducted search efforts.
“The fire was controlled and all residents were outside of the home prior to our arrival,” he said, adding that there were no reports of injuries to residents or firefighters.
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A Marietta man is being held without bond for the attempted murder of a woman at a home in East Cobb last week.
An arrest warrant for William Hensley, whose home address is listed on Franklin Gateway in Marietta, said he is facing felony charges of aggravated assault with intent to murder, kidnapping, false imprisonment, burglary and other charges.
According to the warrant, Hensley went to a home in the Heritage Glen subdivision in East Cobb on the evening of April 5, gaining access with a copy of a house key without the permission of a woman who resides there.
He then held the woman against her will, tying her hands and legs together and holding her on a bedroom floor, according to the warrant.
Cobb Police the suspect also placed tape over her mouth, “placed a belt around her neck, and made threats to kill and cut said victim up into pieces by using a large kitchen knife” that he was holding.
According to the warrant, the victim had multiple lacerations to her head and multiple markings on her forearm and legs.
The warrant states that Hensley also was charged with misdemeanor counts of battery-family violence, loiter prowl, and sexual battery. The Cobb Sheriff’s Office said Hensley was taken into custody the following day, April 6, at his Franklin Gateway residence.
A bond hearing has been set for Hensley for May 6, according to the Cobb Magistrate Court Clerk’s Office.
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Cobb Police said Sunday they’re looking for a suspect who got away during an early-morning incident on Terrell Mill Road after he tried to run down an officer.
Sgt. Eric Smith said that an officer shot at the suspect’s vehicle after police were called to Terrell Mill Road and Brookview Drive around 5:45 a.m. Sunday.
Smith said they were responding to a report of a driver asleep in a black Mercedes SUV at the intersection, which is the entrance to the Terrell Mill Estates subdivision.
He said officers saw a driver asleep inside the vehicle, and they placed a patrol car in front of the Mercedes; a fire apparatus was already behind the vehicle.
But as officers tried to wake up the driver, he refused to follow their commands, and the Mercedes collided with both of the other vehicles, according to Smith.
The driver then drove toward an officer, who returned fire, striking the Mercedes, according to Smith, who said that “it is unknown whether the driver was struck by gunfire.”
He said the Mercedes fled southbound on Terrell Mill Road, but police lost contact after a brief pursuit.
Smith said police don’t have an identity of the driver, and that the Cobb Police Major Crimes Unit is continuing to investigate.
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The Cobb Sheriff’s Office has just issued the following statement:
“Despite extensive efforts by deputies and assisting agencies, the suspect was not located during today’s search. Law enforcement personnel are now concluding the active search in the immediate area and will regroup to continue investigative efforts at a later time.
“While this search generated public attention due to its proximity to a college campus, situations like this occur more frequently than many realize and are typically resolved without the need for public notification. Out of an abundance of caution, information was shared earlier today to ensure the campus community and surrounding residents were aware of the law enforcement activity.
“At this time, there is no known danger to the public.”
ORIGINAL REPORT, 3:50 P.M.
The Cobb Sheriff’s Office said Tuesday it’s searching for a man wanted on a domestic violence warrant near the Kennesaw State University campus.
Jessie Santiago
Public information officer Hassan Glenn said the suspect is Jessie Santiago, 26, and whose photo was distributed Tuesday afternoon as the manhunt continues.
Hassan said that deputies recognized the suspect from an active domestic violence warrant near KSU and although they weren’t serving a warrant at the time, they tried to take him into custody after identifying him.
Hassan said that when deputies approached the suspect, he fled on foot, and that the Sheriff’s Office is working with KSU police and Cobb Police to locate Santiago.
“Residents are urged to remain alert and use caution as law enforcement patrol the area,” Hassan said in a statement. “Please stay aware of your surroundings and avoid approaching the individual.”
Anyone with information about the suspect’s whereabouts is asked to call Cobb County Sheriff’s Office at (770) 499-4600 or submit a tip through the Cobb County Sheriff’s Office mobile app.
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A man charged with threatening to kill a woman during a domestic violence incident at an East Cobb home last week is being held without bail.
Thomas Joe Garza, 51, was charged last Friday with a felony count of aggravated battery and a misdemeanor count of criminal trespass damage, according to an arrest warrant.
The warrant said that the incident happened at a home on Tritt Springs Trace on March 26, and that the female victim said Garza repeatedly slammed her head to the floor and against a metal pole in a closet, while threatening to kill them both and trying to locate a gun.
According to the warrant, the woman suffered heavy bruising to the left side of her face, as well as to her left ear, and could not hear out of it.
“The victim did have clear fluid coming from her ear that the attending physician described as Cerebrospinal fluid which is typically due to trauma to the spinal cord,” according to the warrant.
The warrant also states that Garza threw a laptop computer to the floor during the incident and destroyed it.
He was taken into custody at the home and is at the Cobb County Adult Detention Center without bond, according to the Cobb Sheriff’s Office.
The warrant states that Garza and the woman are domestic partners, but his booking sheet listed him as homeless.
Cobb Magistrate Court Clerk’s Office records show him living at an address on Roswell Road in East Cobb for this arrest and on a previous warrant for another domestic violence charge in 2010.
He is listed as living at the Tritt Springs Trace address in a separate 2008 domestic violence arrest.
Court records are not available for those previous cases.
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The only kind of mug shot you’ll see on East Cobb News. Why is that? Read our explainer below.
As part of our continuing effort to help the public understand why we do things the way we do, East Cobb News is running a short feature on an occasional basis that will give you a better understanding of what goes behind some of our news coverage.
It’s called East Cobb News Explainer, and we’ll start with a subject that we hear from readers about quite a bit: Crime incidents.
What we publish about those incidents, arrests, indictments and trials comes from a variety of sources: what police and prosecutors send/tell us, what readers ask us to check out and what we look into on a deeper level, beyond an arrest warrant or press release.
The availability of public records has been a factor in this coverage as well, especially with online access more commonplace to the general public.
East Cobb News has a few policies that guide our coverage that we want to stress to our readers: We do not publish mug shots based on early crime reports, and in publishing information about an incident or arrest, we attribute where we get that information.
The only exceptions are in the case of a suspect at-large whom law enforcement considers a serious threat to public safety. Those instances are rare.
This is important to clarify because of the principle of due process: Anyone charged with any crime, or who is even issued a traffic ticket, is presumed innocent. It is up to the state to establish guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. A charge or an arrest isn’t an admission of anything; it’s a claim that has to be proven in court.
In the days before online media, newspapers and TV stations routinely ran mug shots of just about anyone arrested for a crime—many of those outlets still do, including in metro Atlanta.
But our policy at East Cobb News is to refrain from publishing mug shots unless or until someone accused of a crime is convicted or pleads guilty and is sentenced.
We can get mug shots with a simple open records request, but with the advent of “mug shot mills” in the digital age, that’s content that’s easily abused. Some years ago the Georgia legislature passed a law banning local jails from posting mug shots on their websites.
Unscrupulous entities scarf up those mug shots, post them on their sites and then extort the suspects who want the photos taken down—at a steep price. Images live forever online, and that was the understandable rationale behind that prohibition.
Unfortunately, state lawmakers are using that to justify a bill now in the Georgia General Assembly that would further limit public information about crime incidents in their communities.
“When a person requests a booking photograph, he or she shall request such photograph by identifying the first and last name of the individual in the photograph and submit a notarized statement affirming that the use of such photograph is in compliance with subsection (c) of this Code section.”
The underline there is mine. This provision also would apply to body camera footage, content that is all the rage in our video-obsessed time and which police gladly post on their own social media channels when it’s favorable to them.
This proposal goes too far, and The Augusta Press gets it right in this editorial arguing why this is not a good bill. It’s worrisome to think about what might be next.
Citizens have a right to know whom their law enforcement agencies are arresting, charging, indicting and trying and why. Go after the mug shot grifters, to be sure, but don’t prevent the broad public from knowing via responsible media outlets.
In Sandy Springs, city officials are being sued by a local news organization for refusing to produce full crime incident reports and other public records in a case that has dragged on for nearly three years.
Even in Cobb County, basic arrest warrants that we see sometimes have scant information. In responding to our request for information last week on a carjacking incident, Cobb Police issued only a brief statement, saying they had no suspects.
When we followed up to ask if they had a description of the suspect(s) and the car that was stolen, they didn’t respond, nor did they explain why they didn’t let the public know that there’s an alleged carjacker on the loose.
It’s important to treat all these cases with care, and when we publish a report like the above, we attribute everything to the source. We can’t, and don’t, take something someone else sees on social media, or hears through the grapevine, and just slap it on our site.
We have to verify it first, and publish only what we know to be true. It’s easy to assume guilt, and police have to conduct their investigations.
What to publish about crime reports and how has always been a delicate balance, and drawing that line is becoming more difficult.
Please reach out to us to explain how we give you East Cobb News. E-mail us at editor@eastcobbnews.com.
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A social work case manager at a Veterans Administration clinic in Jasper was laid to rest on Sunday.
Nicolas James “Nic” Crews, of East Cobb, was 34 when he was shot on Tuesdayby a man p0lice said had come for a walk-in mental health consultation.
Crews, who was a husband and father of three young children, died on Wednesday after being taken to a trauma hospital.
The suspect who escaped the clinic, Charles Michels, 51, of Jasper, was later and shot and killed by local police in a shootout in the clinic’s parking lot, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, which is conducting an investigation.
At Crews’ funeral on Sunday at the North River Church in Marietta, he was recalled by a friend as having “loved people so much, I’m not shocked by how many people, the outpouring of love that we’ve seen from the community, from immediate friends and family. It just speaks to who Nic was.”
Crews was called to the social work profession through his religious convictions, according to his obituary.
He earned a history degree from Kennesaw State University and led a campus ministry while earning a master’s degree in social work at the University of Tennessee.
On one such hike, it began to snow, and Cody Porter said Crews urged them to pray out loud.
“He was going to draw out the heart of whoever he was with, and he was going to infuse you with faith, hope and love,” Porter told the TV station.
“I one hundred percent know that Nic died doing what he was called to do by God,” Porter said.
The National Association of Social Workers of Georgia issued a statement Friday:
“This loss also reinforces a broader truth: social workers must be supported, protected, and invested in at every level. The profession continues to give so much to individuals, families, and communities, often under challenging and under-resourced conditions. Ensuring fair compensation, safe working conditions, and strong systemic support is not optional; it is necessary.”
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An East Cobb resident who runs a medical diagnostics lab in the Cumberland area is facing three felony counts of Medicaid fraud.
Maged Ahmad Awad has been indicted by a Cobb Superior Court grand jury on three counts of medical assistance fraud, according to court records.
The records show that Awad was indicted on Feb. 26 for allegedly receiving payments from the Georgia Medicaid system in “amounts greater than entitled” for genetic screening tests after “engaging in a fraudulent scheme.”
The indictment states that K & S Clinical Diagnostics, located on North Park Place off Windy Hill Road, received more than $307,000 in payments for those tests between March 18, 2022 and June 24, 2023.
But the indictment—which follows an investigation by the Georgia Attorney General’s Office—doesn’t indicate how much of that total is beyond what is allowed.
The day after the indictment, a bench warrant was issued for Awad, 61, according to court records. He was charged at the Cobb County Adult Detention Center on March 11 and was released later that day after posting a bond of $110,220, according to Cobb Sheriff’s Office booking reports.
Awad’s wife, Safaa Awad, is listed as the owner of the diagnostic business, according to the indictment, which said that he is the chief executive officer who “oversaw all day-to-day activities of K & S and who was responsible for finalizing the tests that were charged to Medicaid.”
Staff information on the K & S website doesn’t include Safaa Awad but lists Maged Awad as the president and CEO, and states that he is a medical doctor with a PhD who formerly was a biochemistry professor.
K & S was enrolled as an independent laboratory services provider in the Georgia Medicaid program, according to the indictment.
Services provided by such entities can be reimbursed only via requests by approved medical personnel, including physicians, physician’s assistants, nurses and midwives.
According to the indictment, Awad listed three physicians on documents, falsely claiming they had ordered the genetic tests when they had not done so, then billed Georgia Medicaid for reimbursement.
Each of the payments are listed in separate exhibits in the indictment, and they typically range between $3,000 and $7,000.
The indictment states Georgia Medicaid “made payments for these claims by electronically transferring payments into a bank account owned and controlled” by Safaa Awad, who is otherwise not named in the indictment.
Last year the owner of a behavioral therapy business in Brookhaven received a 10-year sentence after pleading guilty to Medicaid fraud totaling more than $300,000.
An initial court date for Awad has not been scheduled before Cobb Superior Court Judge Kimberly A. Childs.
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An Alpharetta man charged with burglarizing the clubhouse of an East Cobb subdivision is being held without bond for making violent threats against police officers at the scene.
According Cobb Magistrate Court records, Michael Adrius Alcala, 20, was denied bond on March 8, shortly after his arrest at the Jacksons Creek clubhouse, due to being a “danger to person or community.”
An arrest warrant for Alcala states that he has been charged with two felony counts of making terroristic threats, one count of felony burglary, one count of second-degree burglary, a felony count of residential burglary/theft and a misdemeanor charge of possession of THC oil.
The warrant states that Alcala broke into the Jacksons Creek clubhouse at 5522 Timber Ridge Road between 1:16 a.m. and 3:43 a.m. on March 8 and took an Apple Music speaker and a black table cloth.
The warrant further states that Alcala threatened two officers who arrived at the scene by saying that “I will kill your whole family. I will (expletive) kill your whole bloodline. I’m going to beat the (expletive) out of you (expletive).”
According to the warrant, a THC vape pen was found in Alcala’s possession by a Cobb Sheriff’s deputy after the suspect was taken into custody at the Cobb County Adult Detention Center.
Court records indicate that a bond hearing has been set for Alcala on April 8.
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Three teenagers have been charged with a variety of offenses for vandalizing property at a park in East Cobb.
According to arrest warrants, they were part of a group of several teens that damaged a bathroom and performed doughnuts in the parking lot of Harrison Park (2653 Shallowford Road) on March 1.
The teens who have been charged include Rian Scott Cushenan, 17, and Gavin Petersen Smith, 18, both of East Cobb, who were booked into the Cobb County Adult Detention Center on March 6 and were released the next day.
Also arrested was William Chandler Childs, 18, of Athens, who was booked on March 11 and released the next day.
Their warrants state that they have been charged with one misdemeanor count each of criminal trespass and one felony count each of criminal interference with government property.
Smith also is a facing a misdemeanor count of reckless driving, according to his warrant.
The arrest warrants state that the group of teens arrived at Harrison Park between 1:30 a.m. and 1:50 a.m. on March 1.
Smith is accused of performing doughnuts in the parking lot “in a reckless manner,” according to his warrant, and Cushenan’s warrant states the teens came to the park to drink alcohol after hours.
The teens also damaged a women’s bathroom “by pulling the soap dispenser off the wall and discharging a fire extinguisher all over the bathroom floor and walls,” according to the warrants.
Cushenan was arrested at Pope High School and Petersen at his home address, according to their warrants.
They and Childs were released after posting $3,500 bonds, according to Cobb Sheriff’s Office booking reports.
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Cobb Police said Thursday they have not been able to identify any suspects in a carjacking case at an East Cobb shopping center last weekend.
Sgt. Eric Smith, a spokesman for Cobb Police, said police are continuing to investigate an incident that took place Sunday night at 3162 Johnson Ferry Road.
That’s the Shallowford Falls Shopping Center anchored by a Kroger store. In response to a request for information from East Cobb News, Smith said that police were called to that address at 11:26 p.m. Sunday after getting reports of an armed robbery.
When officers arrived, Smith said they found a man who told them that an unknown man with a handgun “had forcibly taken his vehicle.”
Police took the victim’s statement and offered medical assistance that Smith did not describe but said that the victim “requested no further medical attention.”
Smith did not provide information about the vehicle or the suspect or any other details about the incident. He said the investigation is “active and ongoing” by the Cobb Police Major Crimes Unit.
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A fourth-grade teacher at Rocky Mount Elementary School in East Cobb is being held without bond after being arrested Sunday for a sex act with a child.
According to Cobb Sheriff’s Office records, Mareno Danielle Smith, 37, of Acworth was charged by Cobb Police with a single felony count of incest and is in custody at the Cobb County Adult Detention Center.
Smith’s arrest warrant states that a witness reported walking in on an incident involving him and a female minor between 2:45 a.m. and 3:45 a.m. Sunday.
Smith also is an assistant football coach at Allatoona High School. Principal Dr. Lexie Bostick sent a message to the Allatoona school community saying that “while disturbing, the allegations are strictly personal and are not connected to any activities, programs, or facilities.”
She said that in addition to a police investigation, the Cobb County School District’s human resources office will be conducting an investigation.
“The employee will not be on any Cobb County school campus during the investigation,” Bostick said.
She did not identify Smith by name, and he is not listed on the Allatoona and Rocky Mount school websites.
The Cobb school district on Tuesday afternoon told East Cobb News it “cannot comment on Smith’s employment status. A message was sent to Rocky Mount families addressing the matter.”
A district spokesperson issued the following statement:
“Over the weekend, the District became aware of the arrest of an employee and these disturbing allegations. We are aware of the alleged personal, off-campus activity and have confirmed it is not connected to any school activities or programs. As the police investigation and legal process unfolds, all applicable law and District policy will be applied.”
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GBI released this photo of a home in southwest Marietta where a man was shot and killed Monday by Cobb Police.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation said Wednesday identified a man shot and killed by Cobb Police during a residential standoff as a Guatemalan national who had “an active removal order.”
The GBI said in a release that Hermelindo Morete-Dista, 27, was pronounced dead on the scene of the incident on Bradley Avenue southwest of Marietta Monday night.
The GBI said that Cobb Police were responding to reports of possible gunshots at a home on Bradley Avenue, located off Smyrna-Powder Springs Road, around 10:40 p.m. Monday.
Police set up a perimeter around the front of the residence, according to the GBI. When Morete-Dista left the home with a weapon in his hand, the GBI said, he was given verbal commands by officers to drop the gun.
The GBI said that instead, Morete-Dista “continued to hold the firearm and began pointing it toward officers,” and several of them shot him, hitting him multiple times.
The GBI, which investigates officer-involved shootings in Georgia, said that it will turn over its findings to the Cobb District Attorney’s office for review.
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The Georgia Bureau of Investigation said a woman who drew a gun at an officer at the Cobb Police headquarters Wednesday was shot several times and is in critical condition.
The GBI, which investigates officer-involved shootings in Georgia, said Rebekah Patterson, 26, of Marietta, arrived at the police headquarters on Fairground Street in Marietta at 4 p.m. Wednesday, asking to speak with an officer.
An officer met with her outside the building, in the headquarters parking lot, according to the GBI, who said Patterson pulled out a firearm and pointed it at the officer.
The GBI said in a statement that the officer gave her “multiple verbal commands” to drop the gun, and when she refused, the officer fired at her, “hitting her multiple times.”
The GBI said aid was rendered to Patterson before she was taken to a hospital, where she is listed in critical condition, and that no officers were injured during the incident.
The GBI will turn over its findings in the investigation to the Cobb County District Attorney’s Office for review.
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Cobb Police said Wednesday that two of their officers are facing criminal charges in Cherokee County involving minors.
In separate releases, Cobb Police Sgt. Eric Smith said that Officer Withman Benjamin and Officer Tyler Bertolini have been placed on administrative leave pending continuing investigations.
Smith said that Benjamin has been charged with sexual battery against a minor, and Bertolini has been charged with child cruelty.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation said it arrested Benjamin, 47, of Canton, on Friday, on one count of sexual battery against a child under 16, following an investigation that began in September at the request of Canton Police.
Benjamin was booked in the Cherokee Adult Detention Center but is no longer in custody.
“The residents of Cobb County expect and deserve law enforcement officers who uphold the law and demonstrate integrity at all times, both on and off duty,” Cobb Police Chief Dan Ferrell said in a statement.
“We are committed to following the facts, respecting due process, and taking all appropriate action to maintain the trust and confidence of our community.”
Bertolini, also of Canton, turned himself in to Cherokee authorities Tuesday after being charged with two counts of cruelty to children. He is accused of using a belt against a 10-year-old boy in November, causing bruises and welts, and then pushing the child down onto a floor.
Ferrell issued a similar statement about Bertolini’s arrest, saying that “the expectation in Cobb County is clear. Our officers must uphold the law and conduct themselves with integrity, on and off duty.
“We are reviewing the facts, respecting due process, and will take appropriate action to maintain the trust of our community.”
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