Decatur street reopened after investigation of chemicals

By Mike Morris

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A Decatur street was reopened  Thursday after being closed most of the morning while police and drug agents investigated suspicious chemicals found on the porch of a home.

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John Spink, jspink@ajc.com Law enforcement officials in protective suits work out of a mobile lab where a Decatur street was cordoned off early Thursday as police and drug agents descended on a home.

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John Spink, AJC Decatur police officers block Ridgeland Avenue and Fairview St. early Thursday, Aug. 19, 2010 as police and drug agents descended on a home.

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John Spink, AJC Decatur police officer S. Kersey lifts the tape at Ridgeland Avenue and Fairview St. early Thursday, as a environmental cleanup company moves in to clean up a home where the DEA was investigating suspicious chemicals.

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Around 3 a.m. Decatur police blocked off Ridgeland Avenue, a dead-end street running off Sycamore Avenue north of Ponce de Leon Avenue.

A DeKalb County hazardous materials team and agents from the federal Drug Enforcement Administration were also on the scene.

Decatur police Deputy Chief Keith Lee told the AJC that officers responded to a 2:30 a.m. call from a resident about “suspicious activity at a neighbor’s house.”

He said a man at that home was “standing in the front yard, acting not in character” and “exhibiting some unusual behavior.”

That man was taken away for a medical evaluation and has not been charged with any crime, Lee said, adding that the man was “conscious but was not coherent to the point of being able to communicate effectively.”

He said that while checking the home, police found a “large amount of unknown chemicals, both in liquid and powder form” on the front porch. “A lot of the containers had no labeling whatsoever, and that’s what concerned us,” he said.

When the hazmat team was unable to identify the chemicals, agents from the DEA were called to the scene, but they were also unsuccessful in identifying the chemicals, Lee said.

“We don’t have any idea what the compounds are, whether they’re dangerous or not,” Lee said.

Staff photographer John Spink contributed to this article.