Cumming police expect to file charges on Friday in connection with an odd case of possible vandalism where several people in a pickup truck cut down a large tree, then dragged it several hundred feet down Ga. 20 before leaving it in the middle of the busy highway.
The Bradford pear tree was toppled about 8 p.m. June 2 alongside the Southern Cinema Design parking lot just west of downtown Cumming, and the incident was caught on the company’s security video.
Jared Wallace, sales and marketing manager for Southern Cinema, told the AJC that while it was fortunate that no humans were injured during the incident, a neighbor’s cat was killed when the suspects drove off with the tree tied to the trailer hitch of the pickup truck they were driving.
Wallace said that the security video shows the suspects, who were driving the wrong way on Ga. 20, almost collide head-on with another vehicle before they pull into the store’s parking lot in a red and white Ford F-150 pickup truck.
“They sit in the truck a couple of minutes; I don’t know if they’re building courage or what,” Wallace said. “One of them finally gets out and grabs something out of the back of the truck.”
The suspects then cut the tree down with a chain saw. While the base of the tree is out of camera view, “you can see the tree topple over into the parking lot.”
Then, Wallace said, “you see them further back the truck up so they can get closer, and they grab a chain or a rope and attach it to the tree, and just take off. The whole thing happens within about nine to 10 minutes.”
“You see this giant tree behind the truck, scraping through our parking lot and then they pull into Highway 20 and floor it and take off,” he said.
According to the police incident report, when the suspects pulled into the parking lot of a paint store down the road, the tree became lodged on a curb, breaking the tow strap. The suspects sped away, “purposely” striking the cat in a neighbor’s yard and leaving the tree in the highway, the report stated.
Cumming police Sgt. Bryan Zimbardi told the AJC that he planned to file charges on Friday against Stanley Hendrix Jr., 39, and Raymond Solano, 30, both of Cumming.
Zimbardi said the tree was planted on a seven-foot easement alongside the parking lot, and he was still trying to reach the owner of that property to find out if the suspects had permission to remove the tree, since that would determine the severity of charges.
At the least, Zimbardi said, the men will face misdemeanor reckless conduct charges. If it is determined they did not have permission to remove the tree, they will be charged with felony criminal damage, he said.
Two women who remained in the truck apparently did not participate in the cutting of the tree, but could be charged with being a party to a crime.
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