Woman shoots, kills home intruder
The Marietta mother was at home with her three children when she shot him.
MARIETTA — A Marietta mother of three young children shot and killed a man who broke into their Griggs Street home overnight Tuesday, she told police.
Dispatch received a call just before 2:30 a.m. Thursday from a woman saying she killed an intruder, said Officer Chuck McPhilamy, Marietta police spokesman.
Police arrived to discover the body of a man who was shot to death on the floor inside the family’s home, he said.
Investigators interviewed the woman at the agency’s headquarters as detectives processed the scene overnight. The three children who were inside the home when the shooting occurred are safe with other family members, something police say is standard procedure. Their ages were not released.
“When we’re dealing with a homicide, we have to get a search warrant for the home before we can do anything,” McPhilamy said, adding that officers are still scouring the home for evidence.
The neighborhood, which backs up to City Club Marietta behind the Marietta Hilton, is a safe place, McPhilamy said.
“It’s a fantastic area. I would move there,” he said. “This isn’t part of an ongoing thing. It’s an isolated incident that’s being investigated as such.”
Police say they have determined the identity of the deceased man, but have not released any details pending family notification.
Man tries to flee in bus after bank robbery
AUSTELL — Buses are good for the environment, but they make lousy getaway cars.
Cameron Wilkerson, 28, of Atlanta, may have learned that the hard way after Cobb Police arrested him at a bus stop near the Austell bank they accuse him of robbing.
Employees of the Wells Fargo Bank near the corner of Austell Road and the East-West Connector told police a man came into the bank with a handgun, demanding cash. After receiving an undisclosed amount of money, the suspect fled the bank on foot southbound on Austell Road toward the East-West Connector.
The officers located the suspect at a bus stop just east of Austell Road and the East-West Connector intersection, according to police.
Wilkerson is being held without bond at the Cobb County Adult Detention Center, according to jail records. He is charged with three counts of aggravated assault and one count of armed robbery, jail records show.
KSU police chief resigns after review
KENNESAW — Kennesaw State University’s police chief resigned abruptly following an internal review based on leadership concerns centered on him, a university representative confirmed Wednesday.
Roger Lee Stearns, who served as chief of Kennesaw State University’s Police Department since February 2014, announced his resignation in a letter to Jeff Milsteen, the university’s chief legal affairs officer.
University spokeswoman Tammy DeMel would not say what prompted the internal investigation into Stearns or what that investigation revealed, but said additional information could be released in the coming days.
In an email sent to faculty and staff, Milsteen wrote that Deputy Chief Edward Stephens would serve as acting chief, working alongside Stearns to “ensure a smooth transition.”
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Ex-councilwoman: Chief following her
VARNELL — The war of words following the dissolution of the Varnell Police Department, later vetoed, took another turn with former councilwoman Andrea Gordy accusing Police Chief Lyle Grant of following her.
Gordy, who was one of the councilmembers who voted to dissolve the police department, filed a complaint with the Whitfield County Sheriff’s Office on Wednesday after she claimed a Varnell Police Department SUV was following her outside of the Varnell city limits on Tuesday and Wednesday morning.
Gordy said after she saw the police vehicle following her out of jurisdiction on Tuesday, she sent an email to Mayor Anthony Hulsey and the remaining members of the City Council to make them aware of the situation.
She said she was willing to drop it at that point, but said the same SUV was behind her on U.S. 41 between Tunnel Hill and Interstate 75 on Wednesday morning.
Grant denied he or any of his officers were following Gordy, who resigned from the council after questions were raised about her residency in a lawsuit filed by former Varnell city manager Ralph Morgan and his son Bill, a former City Council member.
Capt. Rick Swiney with the sheriff’s office said the office is looking into the complaint.
“The report will be assigned to one of our investigators, and that investigator will make contact with Miss Gordy and we will see where it goes from there,” Swiney said. “It will be the normal process and it will go from there.”
The council proposed putting the question of whether the city would continue to maintain a police force on this November’s ballot and promised to abide by the will of the voters. That ballot proposal was on the agenda for the council’s July 25 meeting but Gordy resigned that day and there were not enough members of the council to make a quorum.