Sheriff: Teen dies from gunshot

Gordon County is investigating the 16-year-old’s death.

CALHOUN — Gordon County authorities are investigating a shooting that killed a 16-year-old boy early Friday morning.

Deputies about 12:30 a.m. responded to a report of a shooting at a home on Fite Bend Road in Resaca, Gordon Sheriff Mitch Ralston said in a press release.

Authorities arrived within six minutes and found the boy suffered a gunshot wound. He died at a Calhoun hospital.

Sheriff’s detectives and GBI agents executed a search warrant and collected physical evidence and interviewed a number of witnesses.

The victim’s body has been sent to the state crime laboratory in Decatur. The investigation is continuing by the sheriff’s office, GBI and coroner’s office.

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Clerks cited for selling to alcohol to an underage person

CEDARTOWN — Three Cedartown stores and three local store clerks were issued citations Thursday for selling alcohol to an underage person.

Citations were issued to Plaza Food Mart, 1598 Rome Hwy., Cedartown, and store clerk Jamil Keshwani; Shell Gas Station, 731 N. Main St., Cedartown, and store clerk Jorge Cervantes; and Save-A-Ton Gas Station, 101 N. Main St., Cedartown, and store clerk Vanessa Gibbons.

The underage buyer was acting as part of a routine undercover operation organized by the Georgia Department of Revenue.

Officers with the Cedartown Police Department offered assistance during the operation, which included 24 stores within the city limits. Restaurants authorized to sell alcohol were not targeted in this particular operation, according to Cedartown Police Chief James Newsome.

In each instance, the buyer walked into the store and was allowed to purchase a beer.

“An officer with the police department issued the citations to the individual clerks. They each have court dates of Oct. 10. Administrative citations were issued to the stores themselves by agents with the Georgia Department of Revenue,” Newsome said.

Newsome said the operation is a routine examination of stores that possess package sale licenses.

“Our department encourages any store, any restaurant to always card everyone, not just someone that looks young,” Newsome said. “If you card them all, then you can be 100-percent sure that you are not selling to a person under 21.”

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4 dead in crash after truck hit man mowing grass

CHATSWORTH (AP) — Authorities in North Georgia say four people are dead after a pickup truck lost control and went off the road, killing a man who was riding a lawnmower nearby.

Murray County Sheriff’s Department Maj. Greg Fowler told the Times Free Press that three teens inside the truck were killed and a fourth was airlifted in critical condition to a Chattanooga hospital following Thursday’s crash.

Fowler says 17-year-old River Sosebee was driving the pickup around a curve when it went off the road and struck 57-year-old Bryan Bartley, who was mowing grass along the side of the road.

Fowler says Sosebee died in the crash, along with 17-year-old Joshua Roberts and 18-year-old Chelsie Hullender, who were both passengers in the truck. The Georgia State Patrol is investigating.