APD Activity – July 2009
A couple selected cases from police reports shared with us…
Dangerous criminal apprehended in the neighborhood - Major Williams shared with us an action story in the neighborhood: While we were running a roadblock at Charles Allen & 4th St, we saw a male riding a bike southbound on Charles Allen from 8th St. Officer Brodnik and his training officer, Officer G. Krylowski, stopped the male at Charles Allen – 6th St. He was wearing a dark blue security guards shirt with a badge on it which from a distance resembled one of APD’s uniform shirts. He gave a name that did not come back on file and provided the officer with a phone which he claimed was his aunt’s – the woman that answered did not know the male. The two officers took the male to ID where they found he gave a false name and had a criminal record that included charges of Armed Robbery , Theft by Receiving, and Hijacking a Motor Vehicle.
Subject breaking into cars – APD Zone 5 Officer Gruen, who also works for MPSA, arrested a subject breaking into cars on Highland Avenue. He also assaulted the witness with a knife. Our research shows that the culprit, Roderick Goldwire, has previously served time in the prison system for various offenses (all in Fulton County), including burglary and breaking into cars. We are unsure if Goldwire is still in jail, as the Sheriff Department website is in the process of revamping features at their website. We plan to join Virginia Highland in court-watching this guy…
WHY WE NEED A PATROL
Recidivist criminals are still getting out of jail and returning to our neighborhood streets at least as fast as they were locked up. Many of these criminals have 20 or more priors – first offenders are very rare in Midtown. Until the Fulton County Commission (not Atlanta City Council) significantly expands jail space to a more realistic level, much of the intown street crime will continue unfettered. Under these conditions much of the work of Atlanta’s Finest is for naught.
The Kenneth Lamb dossier has been updated with recent photos – please continue to help us keep tabs on him until we can be reassured he will not return to Midtown.
Kim Paige, who assaulted a local woman in traffic at 5th & Peachtree remains in jail.
Ricky Love (violent psychopath) and Donald Rayfield (major burglar) remain in jail.
The Midtown Mugger from late last year can be deemed a cold case – he’s probably still out there somewhere…
The Piedmont Park killer is becoming a cold case – he (or she) is also out there roaming around somewhere…
The former Midtown Manor properties at 811, 815, 785 Piedmont Avenue (now owned by BB&T), and 292 9th Street, remain Eyesores, with no word on improvements. No recent vagrant activity reported at 292 9th Street, but Sgt Cooper arrested several vagrants for trespassing at the Manor locations Friday night.
Transvestite prostitutes may be creeping back into the service area, according to reports from Midtowners. We will review our catalog and prepare new court watch cases.
Street drugs remain abundantly available 24/7 in the block surrounding the Peachtree Pine “shelter” as an added convenience to those using their unconditional no-questions-asked services.
Bedford Pine, with plenty of drug dealers serving the street criminals breaking into our cars and homes, continues to be a live production of The Wire…
The property of the big check cashing place at the southwest corner of Ponce & Boulevard remains a problem with street junkies loitering, and the owners seem content with the conditions there.
Petty criminals still roam the streets of Midtown scouting for cars and homes to break into and folks to victimize – get your neighbors to join MPSA so we can fund more patrol hours to mitigate this phenomenon. If every member of MPSA brought in a new member, we could hire enough police officers to patrol our streets 90 hours per week instead of 60 hours per week as we do now. (There are 168 hrs in a week) Think what an impact that would have on crime in Midtown!
Kenneth Lamb Update July 2009
Two weeks ago we found out that Kenneth Lamb was arrested once again for failure to comply with sex offender registration requirements, but a judge dismissed those charges (we still do not know why).
Our close contact in Virginia Highland received information from our community prosecutor that Kenneth Lamb was arrested for a probation violation last Friday (July 25th). On Monday we were reassured that Lamb was still in jail as of Tuesday (July 28th). His probation officer alerted APD regarding his warrant, and supplied lookout flyers to several precincts. Thanks in part to the tips people have given us, he was located in short order near Sidney Marcus Boulevard.
Our community prosecutor Sharla Jackson will notify us of court watch dates. In addition to his probation violation, we are aware of new charges emanating from an assault last fall.
We have received numerous reports of sightings, including a couple pseudo-sightings (many street people look alike). Anyone observing him behaving dangerously or irrationally should keep well clear of him and call 911 immediately. He is stronger and more agile than he may appear. He is not yet wanted by the law, so his status is advisory at this time. People are generally seeing him in the upper Cheshire Bridge area, so we are happy that he is staying away from our neighborhood at least for now. On his flyer, he currently looks more like the small picture on the left margin, only unkempt with a short beard, than his usual Charles Manson appearance in the rest of the pictures. Please continue to report sightings.
- Kenneth Lamb flyer http://www.midtownponce.org/news/profile040.pdf
MPSA Mailbag 7/09/2009
Increase in vagrant activity - It seems we are having an increase in vagrancy! Our custodian has run off many in the last few weeks. One he found in our trash room. A white slender male wearing only a t-shirt and women’s panties. The custodian told him to leave the property. The custodian checked 5 minutes later and the vagrant was still there so he told him to leave again. Our custodian has a room to work out of in our garage and this vagrant came to his room. The custodian got out his cell phone and said he was calling the police. The vagrant then bolted from the property over the fence behind our property. Have you had any reports of this described vagrant in your area?? MPSA Response: yes, we get reports of problematic street people all the time, and the patrol frequently issues criminal trespass warnings and makes arrests when necessary.
Suspicious Trio – In the last few weeks I have witnessed the same three guys casing our end of the neighborhood, 7th and Durant. They come by together or seperately between the hours of 2-4pm, or 8-10pm. They are on blue tooth cell phones slowing down and what appears to be staking out individual homes. I have noticed on two seperate occassions where they walked onto property of homes under renovation or vacant. They wear the same attire, long white T-shirts and cargo pants. One of them always has a Pit Bull with him. I stopped a theft in process last week when a young man fitting the descriptions above dropped an electric saw behind some bushes next to my property. When he came to retrieve it I immediately cont acted 911, but they were busy and the Perp fled. Major Williams has been notified. If you see any suspicious activity, do not hesitate to dial 911.
Sponsors
Many thanks for our community sponsors! While the majority of our funding comes from residents and small businesses, a significant portion of our neighborhood patrol funds comes from the following sponsors:
