IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Top Gwinnett County stories from March13-19

“We learned through our analysis that in 83% of gun incidents reported, no one was hurt and there were very few or no investigative leads,” police said in a statement. “Most investigative resources were being directed, rightly, toward cases where someone was hurt or killed.

“But, we recognize that there is value in investigating gun crimes that don’t result in injury by connecting those weapons to specific suspects.”

In 2022, there were 45 homicides, 111 rapes, 343 robberies, 727 aggravated assaults and 55 aggravated batteries in areas patrolled by Gwinnett County police.

By comparison, in 2021, county police handled 46 homicides, 182 rapes, 421 robberies, 996 aggravated assaults and 66 aggravated batteries.

Even in 2020, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when options for going out were reduced, the crime stats were higher than they were in 2022. In 2020, Gwinnett police handled 48 homicides, 134 rapes, 451 robberies, 999 aggravated assaults and 75 aggravated batteries.

The police department has made investments in crime data technology, such as the Integrated Ballistic Identification System, also known as IBIS. The system give investigators the ability to analyze shell casings that are collected at crime scenes and upload that analysis to the ATF’s National Integrated Ballistic Information Network.

“This cutting-edge technology allows us to connect specific guns to specific casings and potentially to the person possessing those guns,” police officials said.

The Gun Crimes Unit is one step the police department announced it is taking to address violent crimes and solve them. Uniform officers are receiving new training on collecting shell casings from crime scenes and they will work more closely with the department’s Gang Unit to investigate gun thefts, illegal possession and illegal sales cases.

The police department already has some data that sheds light on crimes hat involve guns. One such fact that they are highlighting is that 91% of guns which are stolen in Gwinnett County are taken from a vehicle.

That has led to the department’s Community Affairs Section offering firearm safety and security classes, which are available to all Gwinnett residents. The department is also offering residents free gun locks which can be picked up at the GCPD headquarters as well as all of its precincts.

Other steps are being taken as well.

“As we work on this initiative we have engaged with various stakeholders such as the Gwinnett District Attorney’s Office, who we work closely with on criminal prosecutions,” police said. “Community Affairs also plans to work with Gwinnett Public Schools to offer gun safety and security information where appropriate.

“Together, we can reduce gun violence in our community. The Gwinnett Police Department is committed to investigating and prosecuting these cases to the fullest.”

Gwinnett County Police violent crime stats, 2019-2022 Crime 2019 2020 2021 2022 Homicide 30 48 46 45 Rape 157 134 182 111 Robbery 571 451 421 343 Aggravated Assault 881 999 996 727 Aggravated Battery 73 75 66 55

It wasn’t long before Caiden regained consciousness, but he had bruises and kept repeating himself, so his mother insisted he be taken to Children’s at Scottish Rite Hospital in Atlanta. Even after paramedics told her she could drive him herself, she insisted he be taken by ambulance instead.

“With this type of injury, it just comes down to time,” she said. “If you don’t get there, and if there is a bleed, then it’s deadly so, I just don’t know honestly, it was just a gut feeling like this is not OK. I think with him losing consciousness and the look in his eyes, it was just like ‘This is not OK.’”

That mother’s intuition turned out to be right. Caiden had suffered a concussion, temporal bone fracture, traumatic epidural hematoma, nasal bone fractures, uncial herniation, and a subarachnoid hemorrhage.

While he was getting a CAT scan in the hospital’s emergency department, his condition began to deteriorate, which doctors refer to as decompensating, and he fell into a coma.

“He had a fairly large blood clot in his head that was outside the brain, but inside the skull, and putting significant pressure on the brain enough so it caused his pupil to dilate and caused him to become comatose,” said Dr. David Wrubel, a neurologist a Scottish Rite who treated Caiden.

Doctors immediately took Caiden into surgery to remove the clot and relieve the pressure on his brain.

Wrubel said Becca Wilson’s instinct saved her son’s life by having him taken to the hospital immediately.

“It was one of those (situations) where probably, if decompensation would have happened anywhere except in the emergency department, I don’t know that he would have made it through the injury,” the doctor said.

“All injuries come in varying degrees and probably the majority of the epidural hematomas that we see are not as large as the one that he had. When we see big ones, people can (sometimes) not survive that.”

Whereas being in the right place at the right time saved Caiden’s life, what is being described as remarkable is the fact that he recovered quickly and was back on the baseball diamond, as a member of North Gwinnett’s varsity baseball team, in February, 10 months after his injury.

He plays third base for the Bulldogs.

Caiden said his recovery was tough at first, but the prospect of being an athlete again, and getting back to baseball, drove him to get better.

“I’d say the first half was really hard not knowing if I was going to be able to get back to the person I was before, being an athlete and all of that,” he said. “Then, once I started to see I felt athletic again and doing what I was doing before, I really got motivated to work harder at it.”

The fact that Caiden could recover from his injury does not surprise Wrubel, because the teen was in the hospital when he decompensated and is also young and an athlete.

It’s how quickly Caiden was able to leave the hospital and progress through recovery that makes the teen stand out, according to his doctor.

The injury occurred and Caiden was rushed to the hospital on April 13, 2022. Within four days, the teen was doing well enough to leave the pediatric ICU at Scottish Rite, and he was transferred to the hospital’s neurology floor.

His recovery continued to go well and he was transferred to in-patient rehab on April 22, 2022 to continue working with therapists. His recovery involved both physical and cognitive therapy, which mean a range of activities, from walking on a balance beam to being asked to name all of the schools in the Southeastern Conference.

“(Cognitive therapy) was kind of like a language arts class where I’d read something and answer questions on it, or solve a puzzle, or we’d play a board game, to get those cognitive thinking skills back,” Caiden said.

After he continued to respond well in recovery, he was able to leave the hospital and go home five days later — just over two weeks after his injury.

Wrubel had feared that, because Caiden slipped into a coma and needed a breathing tube because of his injury, the teen would end up facing a long recovery time.

“If (patients) decompensate, like he did, sometimes — and many times — it can mean several weeks if not months of rehabilitation and therapy and persistent significant deficits sometimes,” Wrubel said.

Caiden added, “While I was there, spending time there, I was just wanting it to go by faster, but looking back now, it was a blessing that I was able to recover the way I did, in the amount of time I did. It all just comes back to Children’s being here and the great care they do there.”

But, Caiden was focused on getting back to baseball during his recovery, giving him a motivation to get better. The teen’s mother added that the sport is a big part of her son’s life.

“Baseball is his main sport,” Becca Wilson said. “He loves golf and he played the other sports growing up, but for the last five years or so, it’s been all baseball.”

Something that Caiden said was a big boost in his recovery, however, was The Zone area at Scottish Rite.

The Zone is a part of the hospital where patients can go to find distractions to take their minds off their injuries. They can go outside or play basketball, ping pong, golf, XBox or Wii.

“I would say The Zone is probably a major part of my recovery,” Caiden said. “Just being able to get out of the hospital room, out of the bed, and go down and be in the sun, be outside — there’s bunch of athletic activities to do — and be myself really boosted everything.”

Caiden’s dad, Tim Wilson, said The Zone provided a place to “be normal” and talk about what was on the teen’s mind. He added that his son got excited when he first saw The Zone.

“We walked around the corner and his eyes just got super big with a big smile on his face,” Tim Wilson said. “He just had an instant connection and knew he was going to leverage that.”

Caiden said he enjoyed playing basketball and ping pong, and spending time outdoors during visits to The Zone.

“I will say I did beat my dad in ping pong while we were there so that was interesting,” he said. “But, definitely the basketball court (was a favorite) because it helped me really get back to, athletic-wise, running and jumping and being able move around.”

As for getting back to baseball, Caiden said it was a long process. He had to miss summer ball, but he and his dad went to batting cages to work on regaining baseball skills, such as throwing balls, field work and hitting.

“It was really just going to work at it every day, and keeping my faith that it would work out,” he said.

Tim Wilson praised his son’s work ethic and his persistence in doing whatever he had to do to get back to baseball. He said Caiden’s faith was a key part of his recovery as well.

“He really, really had to work hard this past year,” the father said. “Even up until school started, over the summer and through the fall, he’s really been doing everything he can to take care of his body, to work out, to eat right, to continue practicing his faith.

“Even though the 14 days was remarkable, it’s been a lot of blood, sweat and tears beyond those 14 days to get him where he is.”

Caiden’s dad also pointed out that getting a spot on the varsity baseball team, as a sophomore, is no easy feat, even without an injury to come back from.

“It is an extremely, extremely competitive school,” Tim Wilson said. “We have a lot of juniors that aren’t playing varsity.”

Caiden said he and his family are taking more precautions now that he is back on the baseball field. There is a protective kevlar padding that he has to wear inside his hat whenever he is on the field.

There is also now a rule that helmets must be worn at all times in the batting cage.

Although the memory of his injury remains with Caiden, he has begun attending yoga classes with his mother and meditates now. It’s a way to calm his mind and ease any fears.

“In the back of my mind, I do play with a little more caution and it will always linger there, but I’ve learned to deal with it,” he said.

Becca Wilson said it can be frightening when a pitch goes too close to Caiden’s head in games now, but she also added, “Our motto here is ‘a life lived in fear is not a life worth living.’ You’ve got this second chance so go out and live it and enjoy it because living in fear is not an option.”

“About one-in-three households in Gwinnett are considered ‘cost-burdened’ because they spend a third or more of their income on housing,” Armstrong said. “These trends are by no means isolated to Gwinnett. It’s occurring across the region and it’s just not sustainable.”

Armstrong said there are a number of issues that face the metro Atlanta region, including transportation, resiliency in areas such as water, homeland security, infrastructure and equal access to opportunity remain challenges the area has to continually address.

But, he added that a lack of affordable housing is an issue that can threaten the region’s sustainability if it not addressed, particularly with metro Atlanta’s population expected to grow by 1.8 million people — the equivalent of metro Nashville’s entire current population — by 2050.

“The Atlanta region stands at a critical crossroads,” Armstrong said. “The decisions and investments that we make in the next few years will go a long way in determining the quality of our future.”

Armstrong said Gwinnett is not alone in facing a problem with housing becoming increasingly unaffordable.

He showed graphics that showed which parts of metro Atlanta had affordable housing and how the number of affordable areas decreased over the last decade.

“By 2021, almost the entire northern side of our region, including nearly all of Gwinnett, is seeing median (home) prices north of $400,000,” Armstrong said. “It really makes you wonder how people like police officers, nurses, teachers alike can afford homes in our region, and that is a huge problem.”

In Gwinnett in particular, Armstrong said building permits for new homes is still half of what it was before the Great Recession of the late 2000s and early 2010s. At the same time, the county’s population is estimated to have grown by nearly 180,000 residents between 2010 and 2022.

Gwinnett had 805,321 residents when the 2010 Census was taken, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, and that number had increased to 957,062 when the 2020 Census was taken.

The Census Bureau’s American Community Survey estimated Gwinnett’s population had grown to 964,546 by 2021, and the ARC’s 2022 population estimate put the county at 983,702 residents.

Armstrong said Gwinnett’s population grew by 1.5% over the last two years by the ARC’s estimates (the ARC had Gwinnett’s 2021 population pegged at 970,242 residents, which was a little higher than the Census Bureau’s estimate).

Armstrong said that is faster than the growth in Cobb, Fulton and DeKalb counties, but slower than outlying communities such as Cherokee, Forsyth and Henry counties.

Meanwhile, the ARC board chairman said the housing stock has not kept up with population growth in Gwinnett.

“We’re just not building enough housing to keep with our growth and we all know what happens when supply and demand get out of wack,” Armstrong said.

And, it is not just homes that are becoming less affordable. Armstrong said the rental market is becoming less affordable as well.

“Between 2016 and 2021, Gwinnett lost nearly 15,000 units (that were) renting for less than $1,250 a month,” Armstrong said. “Those aren’t getting replaced. All of this is making it hard for so many of residents to make ends meet.”

The ARC set up the Metro Atlanta Housing Strategy a few years back in an effort to address the housing affordability issue on a regional scale. The strategy is designed to provide local government officials with information about their housing situation, and to show them potential solutions that can be used to address affordability issues.

In addition to the strategy, the ARC also put together a committee, made up of mayors and county commission chairpersons, last year to come up with steps that can be taken to address housing issues. Gwinnett County Commission Chairwoman Nicole Love Hendrickson led the committee.

“It’s certainly true that our region is thriving, but it’s also true that not everyone is enjoying in that success,” Armstrong said. “Home prices in our region have increased four times faster than wages since 2014. Here in Gwinnett, the price of a typical home doubled in that time ...

“That’s simply not affordable for many families and for our essential workers, the teachers, nurses, police officers, firefighters and everyone else that forms the backbone of our community and our economy.”

Hendrickson addressed housing issues in her State of the County Address earlier this month. She said the county is conducting its first needs assessment in more than 30 years to look at community needs, such as housing and homelessness, and how county services are addressing those issues.

The chairwoman also said the county is working on converting an apartment complex in Lawrenceville into a homeless shelter for men and couples who do not have children. The county will also work with the Gwinnett Housing Corporation and Gwinnett/Walton Habitat for Humanity to provide 390 affordable low-income housing units.

“Everyone deserves a safe place to live, no matter their economic situation or what corner of our community they live in,” Hendrickson said at the time. “Housing is a complicated and essential need, and our multi-pronged efforts in this area will continue to evolve with the changing needs of our residents.”

“We stand with, we mourn for and we pray for the survivors and the families of the victims of that terrible, terrible shooting,” state Rep. Sam Park, D-Lawrenceville, said. “Much remains to be done to ensure justice is delivered for our community and for the victims (and) these families.

“A lot of work sill has to be done to ensure we are fighting discrimination of any kind, whether it’s against the Asian-American, the Muslim community or the LGBTQ community.”

The anniversary brought pledges from elected officials to tackle hate crimes and gun violence.

As officials were speaking at a press conference at the State Capitol to mark he anniversary of the shootings on Thursday morning, state Rep. Michelle Au, D-Johns Creek, was presenting a bill addressing pediatric safe storage of guns in a legislative subcommittee. Au was previously a member of the Gwinnett legislative delegation when she served in the Georgia Senate, but her move to the Georgia House took her out of the delegation.

“The AAPI community insists on being seen, we insist on being heard and we know that in order to do that, we must raise our voices and demand it,” Au said. “So, today we honor and remember those that we have lost and we continue to work on their behalf and in their honor.”

The need to address hate crimes and gun violence was a recurring theme among speakers at the commemoration of the spa shooting anniversary.

“Frankly, I’m tired of every day becoming a new anniversary to commemorate another one of our loved ones lost,” state Rep. Ruwa Romman, D-Duluth, said. “So, in honor of those that we have lost, I sincerely hope and I sincerely pray that we dedicate each and every day to fighting back against this hate.”

Austin-Gatson called on Georgians to push back against prejudice, which she said many minority communities face.

“I implore all the members of our community and our society to unite when it comes to anyone in our society being targeted, and especially this day, when we know that Asian-Americans, the AAPI community, has been targeted,” the district attorney said. “It should not be anything that ever gets normalized.

“We should be ready to stand with our entire community and be that city of peace that metro Atlanta is supposed to be.”

Meanwhile, McBath, D-Ga., said supporters of gun control legislation must rededicate themselves to fighting for laws to be passed address gun violence. She highlighted the passage, last year, of the Safer Communities Act in Congress.

Gun control is something which has been a signature issue for the congresswoman, who lost her son to gun violence more than decade ago.

“You are honoring the memory and the legacy of your loved ones in your advocacy,” McBath told the family members of people who were killed in the spa shootings. “Thank you for your courage and thank you for standing here and being a voice for this movement.

“We, in Georgia, are on the front line to end gun violence.”

Lee has worked in education since 1997 and has been with Gwinnett County Public Schools since 2007. She has been he assistant director of the Office of Behavior Support and Interventions since 2019.

Lee was a science teacher at Statesboro High School from 1997 until 1999, and she then served as a science teacher at Redan High School from 1999 until 2004. She was an assistant principal at McNair High School from 2005 until 2007.

When she joined GCPS in 2007, she was an assistant principal at South Gwinnett High School until 2016, while also serving as a resident principal at Dacula High School from 2015 to 2016. She then became South Gwinnett’s principal from 2016 until 2019.

Lee earned her bachelor’s degree in biology from Georgia Southern University, her master’s degree in educational administration from Jackson State University and a specialist degree in educational leadership from Argosy University.

She replaces Rodriguez Johnson, who is now an HR Recruiter for the district.

Lazic has been with GCPS since 2005 and worked as a speech language specialist and pathologist before that.

She was a speech language specialist at The Children’s Institute from 1997 until 2000, a staff speech language pathologist at Children’s Specialist Hospital from 2000 until 2002 and the owner, clinical director and pediatric speech language pathologist for Shore Pediatric Speech Pathology LLC from 2004 until 2005.

Lazic then became the Pre-K speech language pathologist at Harbins Elementary School from 2005 until 2009, the Pre-K speech language pathologist at Lovin Elementary School from 2006 until 2009, the Pre-K special education teacher at Lovin from 2009 until 2014, an administrative intern at Corley Elementary School in 2014, and then the assistant principal at Oakland Meadow School since 2015.

She earned her bachelor’s degree in speech pathology and audiology from Stockton University, her master’s degree in speech language pathology from Kean University, and a specialist degree in educational leadership from the University of West Georgia.

Lazic replaces retired Oakland Meadow School principal Sara Clifford.

The district currently uses an abstinence-focused curriculum called Choosing the Best.

“Local public feedback does not support expansion into a comprehensive sex education program, as advanced by HealthSmart,” said board member Mary Kay Murphy, who made the motion to remove the curriculum from the agenda.

“Today, alone, our school board received more than 300 constituents contacting us to ask us for a delay and re-evaluation of adopting sex ed materials, including the HealthSmart materials.”

The move by the school board to delay a decision came after Georgia State School Superintendent Richard Woods raised concerns about the proposed curriculum change in a letter to GCPS Superintendent Calvin Watts and Gwinnett school board members on Tuesday. Within 24 hours of the letter being sent, parents who opposed the curriculum change had obtained a copy of it and circulated it on social media.

The Daily Post obtained a copy of the letter from the Georgia Department of Education to confirm is contents.

“Regarding the instruction of sex education, Gwinnett’s current curriculum presents itself to be better aligned with the emphasis on abstinence in accordance with state standards and law, as well as State Board of Education board rule,” Woods said in the letter.

Murphy and fellow Board Member Steve Knudsen have said a district survey that parents were asked to participate in last fall showed about 90% of participants expressed opposition to the HealthSmart curriculum.

Whether the proposed HealthSmart curriculum meets state curriculum standards has been one of several points of contention over the proposed change.

Supporters of Choosing the Best point to a decline in the number of teen pregnancies and sexually transmitted disease cases involving school-age children since the program was put in place more than 20 years ago. They also criticize images, which they say are too graphic, in the proposed instructional materials as well as insufficient information on the dangers of pornography. They also fear students will read the materials and feel it validates teens engaging in sexual behavior.

A panel of educators recommended the adoption of the HealthSmart curriculum, with one health teacher telling board members last month the program has a digital component and a skills-based approach which are benefits for teachers.

A representative speaking on behalf of HealthSmart sent out background information, about the program, to reporters on Thursday.

The information sent out on behalf of HealthSmart asserts parents who oppose the program are basing their decisions off misinformation about it.

HealthSmart is accusing unnamed “well-funded organizations” of working to turn public opinion against comprehensive sex education at the local and national levels.

“Their strategy is to create fear among parents through misinformation about the curriculum, packing school board meetings and related meetings to control curriculum decisions,” the information sheet sent out to reporters states.

“Their efforts often have focused on the sex education standards that are inclusive of LGBTQ+ students. These groups typically argue that sex education is usurping parental rights and encouraging sexual activity and/or gender confusion, and instead call for abstinence-only curricula, such as the Choosing The Best curriculum currently in use by GCPS.”

HealthSmart also asserted that its curriculum — which includes HIV, STI, pregnancy prevention, abstinence, puberty and personal health information for middle and high school students as well as as sexual health for fourth and fifth graders — is compliant with Georgia education standards.

The program also covers topics such as emotional and mental health, personal health and wellness, injury and violence prevention, nutrition and physical activity and tobacco, alcohol and drug prevention.

“The ultimate goal of the HealthSmart program is to promote the healthy growth and development of youth and give them the knowledge and skills to make healthy choices and establish life-long healthy behaviors,” the information sent out on HealthSmart’s behalf states.

But, Woods said there are parts of the proposed curriculum that does not fit with Georgia standards. He indicated in his letter that GCPS officials did provide information about the proposed curriculum to the Georgia Department of Education and that the information was reviewed to see if it complied with the state’s standards.

“Upon an initial review, there is content in the proposed curriculum that is not included in our state standards,” Woods wrote in the letter. “The proposed curriculum expands instruction within grades K-5. State law only requires age-appropriate sexual abuse and assault awareness and prevention in these grades.

“The proposed curriculum seems to go above this requirement, and it appears local public feedback does not support expansion into this grade band.

Woods also pointed out there were sections of the proposed curriculum that refer to Collaborative for Academic Social and Emotional Learning standards, also known as CASEL standards, “which are not recognized or adopted by the Georgia Department of Education or State Board of Education and are not part of the state-approved standards for health education in Georgia.”

There are people in the sexual assault recovery field who support the move to HealthSmart, however. Mosaic Georgia Executive Director Marina Peed spoke in support of the program during the board meeting.

“It promotes positive social norms, including abstinence and it provides accurate information for responsible conversations about our bodies, self respect, and consent,” Peed said.

“I absolutely understand parents desire to prioritize the message of abstinence for boys and for girls. Parents should act as the first teachers for their children, however many parents are uncomfortable and uncertain about how to have ‘The Talk’ with the kids without blushing or lecturing.”

Peed added that she feels GCPS should be where children learn a broader array of sex education information rather than finding information on the internet.

“If you ask youths today where they get most of their sex ed, they’ll say through friends, social media, the internet, and porn,” Peed said as she held up a smartphone. “And, it’s all accessible in these handy devices.”

District officials have argued that GCPS will offer an “opt out” option for parents who disagree with the curriculum and don’t want it taught to the children.

Woods, however, told Gwinnett leaders that relying on an “opt out” option, “needlessly puts Gwinnett families and parents in a zero-sum situation.”

Whataburger representatives did not provide a reason for the delay in the opening.

The traffic plan for the restaurant’s opening is expected to remain the same. The Buford location will initially only provide drive-thru service.

Customers will turn off Buford Drive at Laurel Crossing Parkway and enter the Exchange @ Gwinnett property through the entrance located behind Sprouts Farmers Market.

Gwinnett County police will provide traffic control.

“Detectives have exhausted all leads in this case and are asking anyone with information to come forward,” Master Police Officer Hideshi Valle said. “Additionally, detectives are interested in speaking to anyone who can provide information about Garcia before or after her disappearance.”

The police department’s call for information in the Selena Garcia disappearance came days after Crime Stoppers of Greater Atlanta issued its own call for information on her last Friday.

Garcia was reported missing from her home on Dickens Terrace in Lilburn, and police said she is known to frequent the Lilburn, Norcross and Buford areas. She is described as being 5-feet, 4-inches tall and weighing 160 pounds, with brown eyes, straight brown hair and multiple tattoos. Her tattoos include a “503” across her fingers on her right hand, “Maria” on the outside of her wrist and a dark green marijuana plant on the top of her hand.

“The last time I spoke with her was around midnight on (Oct. 7),” Zaira Garcia told the Daily Post. “From my conversation with her, I said, ‘Hey wha are you doing?’ She said, ‘I’m hanging out with my friends,’ and of course I never asked ‘Where are you guys ,’ or nothing. I said, ‘What are you guys going to do?’ She said, ‘We’re going to go out.’ I said, ‘Where are you guys going?’ She said, ‘We’re going to go out.’ And, that was it.”

Selena Garcia had been released from the Gwinnett County Jail the day before her family last heard from her. She had been arrested last July on charges of tampering with evidence, criminal trespass for unlawful purposes, and giving a false name, address or birthdate to a law enforcement officer.

Although Garcia was facing pending criminal charges, her sister believes she would not deliberately intend to make her family worry.

“One thing about my sister, if she knows I’m worried, she’s worried,” Zaira Garcia said. “So she’s like ‘Hey don’t be worried. I don’t want to worry you.’ She’ll call me and tell me whatever it is that she needs to tell me so that I’m no worried about her. Days went by (and) she didn’t answer. I said, ‘Hey, I’m worried about you. Can you please tell me that you’re OK?’

“Now, she would have told me if she’s OK. This was (Oct. 8). I messaged her all the way up to the 15th, and on the 15th, she read my message. She read my message (but) she didn’t respond to me and I said, ‘Well, that’s weird.’ That’s so weird because she would have responded. Of course, at that time, I already had a feeling that she was in danger because I knew she would have responded.”

The concerns of Selena Garcia’s family have been heightened by the disappearance of another young Hispanic woman who went missing from the Norcross area last summer, 16-year-old Susana Morales. Police put out two calls for information about Morales’ whereabouts, but her remains were eventually discovered in a wooded area off State Route 316 near the Gwinnett-Barrow county line last month.

Police officials have since said they believe Morales was murdered by former Doraville Police Officer Miles Bryant within hours or her disappearance last July.

Anyone who has information about Selena Garcia’s whereabouts is asked to call detectives at 770-513-5300 or Crime Stoppers, which lets tipsters remain anonymous, at 404-577-8477. They can also visit visit www.stopcrimeATL.com. Crime Stoppers offers a cash reward for information in this case.

Tipsters are asked to reference case No. GP220087126.

There were 26 suspects named in the indictment, and one of them, 22-year-old Decatur resident Khari “RX Yano” Kelley, remains at large.

The arrests of the 25 other suspects named in the indictment, however, came after a year-long investigation by the Gwinnett Police Gang Unit.

“In August 2021, multiple shooting cases along Boggs Road in Duluth, Ga, led investigators to discover ongoing violence between ‘Blixtz’ gang and ‘56 Gang,’ “ Master Police Officer Hideshi Valle said. “On Aug. 29, 2021, ‘56 Gang’ members shot and killed Jeremiah Pretto (an 18-year-old male from Duluth).

“While investigating Pretto’s murder, numerous violent crimes were linked to the ‘56 Gang.’ These included multiple armed robberies, carjackings, aggravated assaults, and more.”

The case evolved into a RICO investigation against the “56 Gang” in December 2021 as several members were charged with violent cases. Investigators also discovered the ‘56 Gang’ was working with the ‘Drug Rixh’ gang as cases began to emerge where members of both gangs were accused or committing crimes began to emerge.

The case came to a head when the top two leaders of the “56 Gang” — Lawrenceville resident Ladavion “Chicago” Smith, 22, and Clarkston resident Cameron “XG” Hamilton, 18 — along with the two highest ranking members of the “Drug Rixh” gang — Stone Mountain residents Dalemonte “Drug Rixh Hect” Neshawn Stilley, 24, and Zaion “Drug Rixh Peso” Sharif Martinez, 27 — were indicted on RICO charges by a Gwinnett County grand jury on Jan. 25, along with 22 other members of the two gangs.

In addition to the RICO charges, however, the indictment also lists several other crimes, including violations of the Gang Act, malice and felony murder, armed robbery, hijacking a motor vehicle, aggravated assault, terroristic threats, and various firearms offenses.

“The overt acts of racketeering in this indictment spanned across the Metro Atlanta area and were charged in jurisdictions as far as Carroll County,” Valle said.

In addition to Smith, Hamilton, Stilley and Martinez, other defendants named in the indictment who have been arrested include: Anthony Anderson; Devante Arnold; Ah’myir Braxton; Amir Cager; Joseph Davis; Kahli Grant; Keith Gray; Christian Hooper; Isaiah Harris; Karnell Hunt; Zion McCoy; William Trevor Prescott; Eli Richardson; Isaiah Rogers; Tristan Sanchez; Corean Stevenson; Christopher Teal; Isaiah Thomas; and Nylava Woodson.

Two juveniles have also been arrested, but their names have been withheld by police because of their age.

Kelley’s whereabouts remain unknown. Anyone who knows his whereabouts is asked to call detectives at 770-513-5300, or Crime Stoppers, which lets tipsters remain anonymous, at 404-577-8477. They can also visit www.stopcrimeATL.com. Crime Stoppers offers a cash reward for information that leads to an arrest in this case.

“Violence and criminal street gang activity affect our families, schools, and communities,” Valle said. “Any violence and criminal street gang activity that harms our citizens’ and visitors’ safety and quality of life is unacceptable.

“Anyone who participates in acts of violence or criminal street gang activity will be arrested, charged, prosecuted, and held accountable for their actions. Additionally, we work diligently to provide the District Attorney’s office with cases that result in successful prosecutions. Any acts of violence or criminal gang activity will be investigated and prosecuted to the fullest in Gwinnett County.”