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I hope that this guy doesn't find himself at the wrong end of a criminal investigation. Being Atlanta and all.
http://www.ajc.com/services/content/met ... 7&cxcat=13
By SAEED AHMED, JUANITA COUSINS
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 08/06/07
When Susan McKay moved into her East Atlanta neighborhood about two years ago, she accepted that gentrification often came with a price: break-ins, vandalism, car thefts.
But two disturbing incidents within a three-day span last week â€" and the bizarre manner in which they are tied â€" has left her and others in the neighborhood off Moreland Avenue quite unsettled.
On Thursday, a homeowner on Emerson Avenue scared off two would-be burglars by firing his gun as they tried to break into his house in the middle of the day.
Two days later, a woman trying to retrieve her dogs from her backyard found the decomposing body of a teenager sprawled on a mulch pile.
Atlanta police now think that three, not two, men may have tried to rob the Emerson Avenue home Thursday. And while they arrested two of the suspects shortly after the attempted break-in â€" and found them to be unhurt â€" the third apparently jumped over the fence, crossed into a neighbor's yard and died of a bullet to the chest.
Police said Sunday that investigators cannot definitively say whether the dead man, 18-year-old James T. Motley Jr., took part in the attempted burglary.
But one of the suspects called Motley's family from the Fulton County Jail sometime Saturday to tell them to check on the teen's whereabouts.
"He stated to family members that [Motley] was with them when they tried to gain entry to the home," said Officer James Polite.
A group of about 20 people â€" including Motley's mother and his girlfriend carrying his infant â€" descended on the neighborhood and canvassed the area Saturday evening.
About the same time, Debbie Matani went to get her dogs from the backyard of her home on Delaware Avenue, which is on the next street to the Emerson Avenue home.
There, in a part where the family rarely goes, Matani found the dead teen, his baggy pants gathered around his ankles.
A shaken Matani would not talk with reporters Sunday. She and her family were staying with relatives.
The man who fired the shot from the blue three-bedroom house on Emerson also was not at home Sunday evening, and did not return calls.
He told police he was at home Thursday, recuperating from surgery when he saw two men peering through his window. When they tried to break in, he got his Glock and shot through the door, scaring them away.
Police did not find blood at the scene and noted no injuries on the two men they arrested a short time later. Officials could not provide their names or the charges against them Sunday evening.
Susan McKay, the resident who moved in a couple of years ago, said there have been several daytime break-ins in recent weeks but nothing as serious as the incidents last week.
"It's really frightened a lot of people around here," said the real estate agent who lives across the street from Matani.
Sunday evening, residents walked their dogs or worked in their yards, stopping each other and catching them up on the police activities that pierced the quiet of their neighborhood last week.
They shook their heads and commiserated with each other. And then they moved on, each one resigned to one unsurprising tenet, said resident Brownlee Currey: "You expect this kind of thing when there's gentrification."
http://www.ajc.com/services/content/met ... 7&cxcat=13
By SAEED AHMED, JUANITA COUSINS
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 08/06/07
When Susan McKay moved into her East Atlanta neighborhood about two years ago, she accepted that gentrification often came with a price: break-ins, vandalism, car thefts.
But two disturbing incidents within a three-day span last week â€" and the bizarre manner in which they are tied â€" has left her and others in the neighborhood off Moreland Avenue quite unsettled.
On Thursday, a homeowner on Emerson Avenue scared off two would-be burglars by firing his gun as they tried to break into his house in the middle of the day.
Two days later, a woman trying to retrieve her dogs from her backyard found the decomposing body of a teenager sprawled on a mulch pile.
Atlanta police now think that three, not two, men may have tried to rob the Emerson Avenue home Thursday. And while they arrested two of the suspects shortly after the attempted break-in â€" and found them to be unhurt â€" the third apparently jumped over the fence, crossed into a neighbor's yard and died of a bullet to the chest.
Police said Sunday that investigators cannot definitively say whether the dead man, 18-year-old James T. Motley Jr., took part in the attempted burglary.
But one of the suspects called Motley's family from the Fulton County Jail sometime Saturday to tell them to check on the teen's whereabouts.
"He stated to family members that [Motley] was with them when they tried to gain entry to the home," said Officer James Polite.
A group of about 20 people â€" including Motley's mother and his girlfriend carrying his infant â€" descended on the neighborhood and canvassed the area Saturday evening.
About the same time, Debbie Matani went to get her dogs from the backyard of her home on Delaware Avenue, which is on the next street to the Emerson Avenue home.
There, in a part where the family rarely goes, Matani found the dead teen, his baggy pants gathered around his ankles.
A shaken Matani would not talk with reporters Sunday. She and her family were staying with relatives.
The man who fired the shot from the blue three-bedroom house on Emerson also was not at home Sunday evening, and did not return calls.
He told police he was at home Thursday, recuperating from surgery when he saw two men peering through his window. When they tried to break in, he got his Glock and shot through the door, scaring them away.
Police did not find blood at the scene and noted no injuries on the two men they arrested a short time later. Officials could not provide their names or the charges against them Sunday evening.
Susan McKay, the resident who moved in a couple of years ago, said there have been several daytime break-ins in recent weeks but nothing as serious as the incidents last week.
"It's really frightened a lot of people around here," said the real estate agent who lives across the street from Matani.
Sunday evening, residents walked their dogs or worked in their yards, stopping each other and catching them up on the police activities that pierced the quiet of their neighborhood last week.
They shook their heads and commiserated with each other. And then they moved on, each one resigned to one unsurprising tenet, said resident Brownlee Currey: "You expect this kind of thing when there's gentrification."
