Five local FBI agents and a Cherokee County deputy sheriff were honored in Washington, D.C., for their efforts in arresting an Austell man suspected in more than 30 armed robberies across metro Atlanta, an FBI spokesman said Tuesday.
Cherokee Deputy Sheriff Alex Rivera, FBI Senior Special Agent Anthony Smith, and Special Agents Robert McAllister, Chad Fitzgerald, Benni Jonsson and Mike Greene recently received the FBI Shield of Bravery, one of the highest honors the agency grants for courageous acts in the line of duty.
Those officials as well as 12 others from the FBI and the Atlanta, Powder Springs and Gwinnett County police departments were involved in the April 4, 2015, arrest of Kelvone Charleston. He was wanted in a string of up to 32 armed robberies of CVS stores and other commercial locations dating back to November 2013.
When authorities confronted Charleston at a CVS on Windemere Parkway and Old Atlanta Road in Forsyth County, officials said Charleston rushed back to his car, tried to drive away and rammed two of the officers’ cars. The impact flipped over one of the vehicles. Rivera and the two FBI agents in the overturned car were injured.
They were ultimately treated at a local hospital and released. Charleston was shot multiple times after displaying a weapon. None of the wounds were life-threatening, FBI spokesman Stephen Emmett said at the time.
He said he could not comment Tuesday on the status of Charleston’s case.
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