After carjacking, Gold Dome to get its own GSP post

By Alexis Stevens

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A new Georgia State Patrol post, along with 22 troopers, will soon be in operation near Georgia's state Capitol building in Atlanta.

The state's Board of Public Safety voted to add the post Thursday, less than a month after a state employee was carjacked near the Gold Dome.

The plan for additional security was in the works even before the December incident, a spokesman for the state patrol told Channel 2 Action News.

"Because the Capitol is a focal point of state government for the state, you have students as well as civic groups coming to the Capitol daily, and the need for security is more so now than ever," Gordy Wright, state patrol spokesman, said Thursday.

On Dec. 29, two males approached a state employee in the state archives building parking lot, ordered the woman out of her car at gunpoint and then drove away in the car, Wright said.

Atlanta police officers found the car the following day and arrested Kenney Desmond Ponder, 17, of Atlanta. Capitol Police charged Ponder with hijacking a motor vehicle and possession of a firearm during a crime, Wright said. The other suspect remains on the loose.

The new state police post is expected to be in place by Feb. 1.