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November 2006
Firefighter dies from burns
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
An Atlanta firefighter badly burned while battling a Thanksgiving night blaze has died, fire officials said.
Steven Solomon, 33, died early Wednesday in the burn unit at Grady Memorial Hospital, where he had been treated since the Thursday night fire in an abandoned Vine City house.
“We have truly lost a hero,” Atlanta fire Chief Dennis Rubin said.
The married father of four, who had been with the Atlanta department for about four months, was previously with the Macon-Bibb County Fire Department for six years.
Atlanta fire Capt. Byron Kennedy said investigators have determined that the Thursday night blaze on Elm Street was caused by an unattended candle left by vagrants.
Solomon was inside the one-story frame house when vapors flared as temperatures soared to around 1,100 degrees, Kennedy said.
“When vapors get to temperatures above 1,000 degrees, they can ignite, and instead of flames, it produces super-hot smoke,” Kennedy said last week. “Our protective gear can withstand temperatures in excess of 1,000 degrees, but only for a few seconds.”
Solomon suffered third-degree burns to his torso and legs, about 30 percent of his body.
Peachtree Road closed by downed utility pole
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Peachtree Road in Buckhead was closed during the early part of Tuesday’s morning commute because of a downed utility pole.
It was not immediately clear what caused the pole to fall between Piedmont Road and the Ga. 400 underpass.
All lanes of Peachtree in both directions were closed for several hours at Highland Drive.
The pole was removed and the lanes reopened shortly before 7 a.m.
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Atlanta soldier killed in Iraq
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
An Army sergeant from Atlanta has died of injuries sustained in an explosion in Iraq, the Department of Defense said today.
Command Sgt. Major Donovan E. Watts, 46, died last Tuesday in Bayji, Iraq.
Watts, who was based at Fort Bragg, N.C., was injured when an improvised explosive device detonated near his Humvee during combat operations in Siniyah, Iraq. Watts was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division.
The Department of Defense also announced Monday that an Arizona soldier based at Ft. Stewart, Ga., died Friday in Iraq.
Pvt. Reece D. Moreno, 19, of Prescott, Ariz., died of injuries suffered in a non-combat related incident in Balad, Iraq.
Moreno was assigned to the 92nd Engineer Battalion, 3rd Sustainment Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division.
Airport Expecting Busiest Day
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Holiday stragglers and business travelers at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport found lengthening security lines today at the beginning of what was expected to be the airport’s busiest day of the year.
An estimated 292,584 passengers were expected to pass through the airport today.
Early travelers found wait times of 30 to 40 minutes at the main security checkpoint, as well as at the “T-Gate” security line at 8 a.m., according to the airport’s website, www.atlanta-airport.com.
By 9:30 a.m., the wait times were only 15 to 20 minutes at each checkpoint.
That compared with average wait times of 15 minutes or less on Sunday.
The only significant flight delays reported by the Federal Aviation Administration early Monday were on flights bound for Philadelphia. Those flights were not allowed to take off until 7:30 a.m. Monday because of incliment weather in the Northeast.
Airport Delays on Thanksgiving
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Weather and poor visibility are causing departure delays from Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson airport to four northern destinations, according the Federal Aviation Administration’s web site. Passengers will have to wait just over two hours to leave for Philadelphia and Newark.
Flights to New York City are running 45 minutes behind to John F. Kennedy Airport and 92 minutes to nearby LaGuardia Airport. Other flights, however, are within 15 minutes of scheduled departures or arrivals, federal aviation officials report.
Security check point times at Hartsfield-Jackson remain at 10 minutes or less, according to the airport’s web site.
Police: Shootout Home Contained Drugs
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Atlanta Police have obtained an arrest warrant for the male subject they say sold illegal drugs to undercover operatives Tuesday afternoon at the house where a 92-year-old woman later died in a shootout with police.
Kathryn Johnston died in a hail of bullets when she fired at three undercover agents with a “no knock” warrant who broke down her door.
Police say they found illegal drugs in the northwest Atlanta home after the shootout. “Yes, narcotics was found at the location,” said Officer James Polite, spokesman for the Atlanta Police. He declined to elaborate further, citing an on-going investigation.
The shootout is under investigation by Atlanta Police, the Fulton District Attorney’s office and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, which had evidence trailers at the Johnston home Wednesday night.
Police say they do not know the identity of the suspect who allegedly sold them drugs at the residence earlier in the day. The warrant, issued in the name of “John Doe”, also known as “Sam.” charges him with selling illegal narcotics He is described as a black male, 33 to 36 years old, weighing about 250 pounds. He is about six feet tall, with black hair and brown eyes.
According to her relatives, Johnston was a frightened old woman who had burglar bars on her windows and doors and rarely let friends and neighbors into her home. Five of her shots from a revolver hit the three officers, who were all treated and released from Grady Hospital Wednesday.
She was hit twice in the chest, according to the coroner’s report. Bullets also hit her extremities. Police declined to say how many shots were fired by police.
Airport Stuffed Early Thanksgiving
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Travelers who had hoped to avoid the traffic madness of Thanksgiving Eve crammed the Hartsfield Jackson International Airport on Thanksgiving morning.
As early as 7 a.m., folks showed up to check in on time only to find thousands of others who’d had the same idea. Lines leading to the security check point stretched to the food court of the Atrium. But lines were moving fast and no major delays were reported by 8 a.m.
“I wasn’t expecting the line to be this long,” sighed Dawnita Jenkins, 35, of Atlanta, who was trying to catch a flight to Florida.
Sue Corcoran and her three teenage boys had flown on standby from Ann Arbor to Atlanta last night to go to Ashville and visit her parents. The family had to spent a night at a hotel near the airport because they couldn’t find enough seats on the connecting flight on Thanksgiving Eve.
Corcoran wasn’t rattled by the delay or the wait Thursday. “I don’t think it’s too bad. It’s moving,” she said.
Tiffany Davis, a Smyrna resident, arrived at the airport at 6:45 a.m. to catch a 9:25 a.m. flight to Baltimore, fearing the worst. An hour later, she was relaxed and reading a book in the Atrium.
“I expected a lot of delays, but it’s smooth,” said the 31-year-old. “I was way too early.”
Daily passenger volume is expected to peak at more than 290,000 on the Sunday and Monday after the holiday as travelers return home.
Teen, baby kidnapped in Marietta
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A man armed with a pistol showed up in a house in Marietta early Thanksgiving morning and kidnapped a 15-year-old girl and a 8-month old boy, authorities said.
Around 4:30 a.m., Sergio Hernandez, 21, came to the house at 472 Chamberlain Circle and abducted the two after hitting a teenager at the house, said Officer Wayne Delk, spokesman for the Cobb County police department.
Authorities have begun an Amber Alert for the Red Pontiac Hernandez was said to be driving. Hernandez, who is known to use several aliases, is 5 feet 9 and 170 lbs, with black hair, a mustache and several tattoos. He is considered armed and dangerous, Delk said.
Hernandez is the father of the baby, authorities said.
Passenger: “It’s been pretty easy”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
On one of the busiest travel days of the year, passengers at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport are finding that getting to their gate at is pretty easy. Waits at security checkpoints were about 10 minutes.
Even as the airport filled up in the early afternoon, wait times remained about 10 minutes.
Collin Richardson , who was saying good bye to his sister, said he was pleasantly surprised at how fast the lines were moving through the security checkpoint.
“I expected chaos, pandemonium,” said Richardson. “It’s been pretty easy.”
Denise Gistand of Lithonia was returning to her native Baton Rouge for Thanksgiving and was amazed to not find the holiday crowd and long lines she expected.
“I just got dropped off 10 minutes ago and here I am,” she said, rushing to keep her place in line at the checkpoint. “I just didn’t expect this.”
Airport workers kept travelers moving so stagnant lines did not have time to form. A worker stood at the terminal entrance, handing out free one-quart clear Hefty One-Zip bags for toiletries. Past her, at the entrance to the security checkpoint, more workers were on hand to help travelers decide what toiletries could go in the bag and what had to be tossed.
Bags were piled on tables at either side of the checkpoint line. Another airport worker stood among travelers waiting to go through scanners, moving them through the lines.
Felecia Browder, airport spokeswoman, attributed the smooth operations to the 3-1-1 campaign educating passengers on the new carry-on rules.
The campaign, which originated with the TSA but is prominently posted throughout the airport, says that containers of liquids, gels and aerosols 3 ounces or less may be brought on board, but they must be placed inside a 1-quart zip-top bag, with a one-bag-per-person limit.
The plastic bags must be removed from carry-ons and placed in security bins for screening.
“We’re most concerned about people who haven’t traveled in the last few months or who are flying for the first time and are not familiar with the changes. Most people are prepared though. The trash cans we set out were only about three-quarters full yesterday,” said Browder.
Georgia Tech student Alex Milstead, flying out to Los Angeles to see his dad, hasn’t flown since the new rules went into effect and was unhappy about having to throw out a 7 ounce bottle of contact lens solution.
“It cost five bucks but that’s five bucks a poor college student doesn’t have,” he said, tossing the bottle in a trash can already holding several new full-size tubes of toothpaste and bottles of hair care products.
The ease of getting to the gates didn’t extend to getting off the ground, at least on some flights.
Storms from Charlotte, N.C., to New York are causing general delays in Atlanta flight departures of about 15 minutes, but more than an hour to New York City area airports and Philadelphia, according to the FAA website.
As for parking spaces, both North and South Economy lots were full . Other lots still had spaces.
Before the day is over, Hartsfield expects to see more than 280,000 passengers, airport officials said.
Daily passenger volume is expected to peak at more than 290,000 on the Sunday and Monday after the holiday as travelers return home.
Staff writers Bridget Gutierrez and Kristina Torres contributed to this report.
DA to look at DeKalb cop shootings
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The chief of the DeKalb County Police Department has asked the district attorney to review and investigate a string of deadly shootings by the county’s police officers.
“I want to remove any shadow of a doubt,” said Nick Marinelli, the police department’s interim chief. This year, DeKalb County police officers have shot and killed 12 suspects — more than any other police department in metro Atlanta. A police officer has also been killed.
The results of police investigations of the 2006 shootings are not yet available, but earlier this month, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution examined internal reports of 31 shootings from 2001 to 2005 and found that officers had patterns of violating department policy — sometimes putting themselves in a position where they had no choice but to shoot.
Most of the officers involved were not disciplined, the newspaper found, and the department did not address the pattern of violations in its training programs.
The report prompted John Evans, former president of the DeKalb County chapter of the NAACP, to call for an outside investigation and a civilian review board to examine future cases. It also led to two small protests at police headquarters.
Family members of some of those who were shot and killed this year have demanded the department do a better job of training its officers.
The police department’s review board had been looking at the shootings; Marinelli would not say what the board found on any of those cases. He wants the district attorney to look at the shootings before he makes the findings public, he said.
Lee Ann Womack gets protective order against Ga. man
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
SAVANNAH, Ga. — Country music star Lee Ann Womack has secured a temporary protective order to keep away a man she says was stalking her.
In a petition filed last week in Chatham County Superior Court, Womack’s lawyers claim Mark Borer, 36, of Tybee Island, has been stalking her for the last year, the Savannah Morning News reported.
Borer appeared outside Womack’s parents’ house in Jacksonville, Texas, while she was visiting in November 2005, according to the petition. Womack also claimed that last month, she received “various disturbing and harassing” letters from Borer. She said she does not know the man.
The singer sought the protective order to keep Borer away from her at Monday night’s Country Music Association Awards in Nashville, Tenn. Womack, who won album and single of the year in the 2005 ceremony, was not nominated this year but appeared at the awards show.
Superior Court Judge Penny Haas Freesemann signed a 30-day order preventing Borer from coming within 1,000 feet of Womack, her family, or her production company, LAW Productions. It also prevents him from contacting Womack or her family by phone, e-mail or any other means.
If he violates any terms of the order, he can be arrested.
Freesemann scheduled a Dec. 1 hearing to determine whether a permanent order should be granted.
Lee Ann Womack gets protective order against Ga. man
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
SAVANNAH, Ga. — Country music star Lee Ann Womack has secured a temporary protective order to keep away a man she says was stalking her.
In a petition filed last week in Chatham County Superior Court, Womack’s lawyers claim Mark Borer, 36, of Tybee Island, has been stalking her for the last year, the Savannah Morning News reported.
Borer appeared outside Womack’s parents’ house in Jacksonville, Texas, while she was visiting in November 2005, according to the petition. Womack also claimed that last month, she received “various disturbing and harassing” letters from Borer. She said she does not know the man.
The singer sought the protective order to keep Borer away from her at Monday night’s Country Music Association Awards in Nashville, Tenn. Womack, who won album and single of the year in the 2005 ceremony, was not nominated this year but appeared at the awards show.
Superior Court Judge Penny Haas Freesemann signed a 30-day order preventing Borer from coming within 1,000 feet of Womack, her family, or her production company, LAW Productions. It also prevents him from contacting Womack or her family by phone, e-mail or any other means.
If he violates any terms of the order, he can be arrested.
Freesemann scheduled a Dec. 1 hearing to determine whether a permanent order should be granted.
One killed in North Georgia plane crash
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
One person was killed Monday afternoon in a plane crash in North Georgia.
Whitfield County 911 dispatchers got a call about 12:30 p.m. that a small plane with engine trouble was trying to make it to the county’s airport near Dalton, said dispatch supervisor Kevin Day.
The plane crashed about three miles from the airport, near the intersection of Ga. 52 and Ga. 286, Day said.
Day said the pilot was believe to be the only person on board the plane. No one on the ground was injured, he said.
Kathleen Bergen, a spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration, said preliminary information was that the kit-built Lancair was flying from DeKalb, Ill, to Brooksville, Fla., when it developed engine trouble. The plane is registered to a Sycamore, Ill., man, she said.
