CrossRoadsNews, January 9, 2016

Page 1

COMMUNITY

KING HOLIDAY

Celebrating emancipation

Call to action

Passionate speeches were the order of the day during the DeKalb NAACP’s annual Jubilee Day observance on Jan. 1. 5

Bernice King is challenging the public to embrace her father’s “legacy of freedom for our world” during King Week celebrations. 9

Put Litter in Its Place Let’s Do Our Part to Keep DeKalb Beautiful

EAST ATLANTA • DECATUR • STONE MOUNTAIN • LITHONIA • AVONDALE ESTATES • CLARKSTON • ELLENWOOD • PINE LAKE • REDAN • SCOTTDALE • TUCKER

Copyright © 2016 CrossRoadsNews, Inc.

January 9, 2016

Volume 21, Number 37

www.crossroadsnews.com

DA seeks indictment of officer who killed naked man By Ken Watts

DeKalb police Officer Robert Olsen who shot and killed the naked and unarmed Anthony Hill in Chamblee last March could face criminal charges. Robert Olsen Olsen killed Hill, a 27-year-old Air Force veteran, on March 9, 2015, outside the Heights at Chamblee Apartments at 3028 Chamblee Tucker Road when he responded to a call about a naked man wandering the grounds and talking incoherently.

Family members say Hill, who served in Afghanistan, had medical issues ever since he returned from the war in 2010. On the day of his death, they said he was behaving strangely because he had stopped taking Anthony Hill his medicine after a bad reaction to medication for post-traumatic stress disorder. Olsen said that the naked Hill approached him aggressively and that he used deadly force because he feared for his life. District Attorney Robert James said on

Jan. 7 he will seek indictment on two counts of felony murder against Olsen when the grand jury meets on Jan. 21. He said he also will ask the grand jury to indict Olsen on two counts of violation of oath of office, one count of aggravated assault, and one count of making a false statement. James said his request to the grand jury stems from additional investigation by his office. Robert James “The facts and circumstances surrounding the shooting death of Anthony Hill warrant a charge for felony

murder and that’s why we’re presenting it to the grand jury,” he said at a news conference in the DeKalb Courthouse. “Ultimately, it’s going to be up to a grand jury if Officer Olsen is charged with felony murder.” Attorney Christopher Chestnut, who represents the Hill family, said the intent and notice to Olsen must be filed 15 days before any formal charges can be brought. He said James has been very meticulous in his investigation of the case. “The news today was very refreshing for the family,” Chestnut said. Bridget Anderson, Hill’s girlfriend, told Please see POLICE SHOOTING, page 3

8-foot fence mars South DeKalb Senior Center White barrier violates overlay district rules

A “smaller, less obtrusive fence” will replace the 8-foot white wrought-iron one at the new South DeKalb Senior Center that opened last fall.

By Jennifer Ffrench Parker

The 8-foot, white wrought-iron fence around the South DeKalb Senior Center on Candler Road is coming down. DeKalb Chief Operating Officer Zachary Williams confirmed Thursday that the fence, which violates the county’s own I-20 Overlay District guidelines, will be replaced by a less obtrusive fence but he did not know when. He said that as soon as the ugly fence went up, “there was consensus that we need to so something about it.” “Yes we have made the decision to put in a smaller, less obtrusive fence,” Williams said. The county’s 79-page I-20 Overlay District, approved by the Board of Commissioners in December 2007, sets out architectural, sign and other guidelines for Candler, Panola, Wesley Chapel, Snapfinger and Gresham road corridors and the I-20/I285 interchange area. None of the guidelines allow a white fence. Williams said he did not know how the fence came about or who approved it. “It was in the original drawings,” he said. “I was told it came out of charettes that we held.” Williams said he would find out if the fence is a violation of the overlay district. Late Thursday, county press secretary Burke Brennan provided CrossRoadsNews with a copy of Article 5 of the county’s Zoning Code that said fences in front of a building can go “up to 4 feet” and fences to the side and rear can go “up to 8 feet.” The white picket fence in front of the building is 8-foot high. District 3 Commissioner Larry Johnson, who represents the area, said the fence in front and along the right side of the center at 1931 Candler Road is not aesthetically

Curtis Parker / CrossRoadsNews

pleasing. “It just doesn’t look good,” he said. “It doesn’t give a good presentation from street. I have already expressed to them that that fence is not supposed to be there.” DeKalb Commissioner Kathie Gannon, whose Super District 6 also includes the area, said the fence was erected because the county does not follow its own rules. “They probably didn’t know that it’s against their rules,” she said. “They just don’t read the overlay.” Gannon said these types of things continue to happen because no one is accountable at the county. “No one is ever held responsible,” she said. “No one’s job is ever on the line. We should be fined for putting up that thing.”

Gannon said the fence looks like it is keeping something in. “It looks like a kind of place – not a prison – but the kind of place that is keeping people in,” she said. “We don’t need a fence.” Gannon said she has spoken with Allen Mitchell, acting director of Human & Community Development, whose department had responsibility for building the $5 million Candler Road facility and four other senior centers across the county. “I said, ‘Please, please, please, replace that fence,’ ” she said. “It should have come down immediately, but here we are months later and it is still there.” The senior center, built with federal Block Grant funds, finally opened for business in September – three years after the old senior

center was demolished and construction got under way in 2012. During construction, the center’s 150 seniors were bused daily to Hamilton Senior Center in Scottdale. Williams said that because of the many challenges with completing the center, the county issued the certificate of occupancy with the knowledge that it had to come back to do more paving, add more parking and replace the fence. “Replacing the fence was just secondary to getting it open,” he said. At press time Thursday, Williams did not know the time line for replacing the fence or if a new design, compatible with the overlay district guidelines, had been done. “We promise to move it as quickly as possible,” he said.


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