A Sugar Hill family is staying with relatives after a fire destroyed their home on Friday, according to Gwinnett fire officials.
Captain Ryan McGiboney said firefighters were called to the home on the 5700 block of Avonley Creek Drive at 12:54 p.m. and arrived a few minutes later to find heavy flames coming from the house. A 9-1-1 caller said the homeowner worked at night, but no one had seen him escape from the house. There were three cars parked in the home's driveway when firefighters arrived. As it turned out, the homeowner and his wife were outside the home and crews found them standing on a sidewalk. the homeowner confirmed to fire officials that the home had been vacant when the fire broke out.
Firefighters used a ladder truck to knock out most of the flame and then used handlines to extinguish remaining hot spots.
The cause of the fire has not been determined. McGiboney said said the family that lived at the home will stay with family members while repairs are made to their house.
Hebron Christian senior Libby Jackson placed 16th out of 40 athletes in the pole vault at the Birmingham-Southern College Indoor Track and Field Invitational this past Friday.
Jackson’s best vault was 11 feet, 2 inches. She won last season’s Class A Private state championship at 11-0, and was Gwinnett County champion at 11-1.
On Sunday, the United States Marshals Service announced it has caught an international fugitive and child sexual predator from Gwinnett County who had been on the lam for nearly five years.
U.S. Marshals teamed up Mexican authorities to arrest Brad A. Hatter of Gwinnett on December 3. Hatter was sent back to Georgia on December 4 and placed into detention where officials with the U.S. Marshals Service said he remains.
In December 2005 in Gwinnett, Hatter, 58, was arrested for attempting to meet a 9-year-old girl for sexual activity. Officials said Hatter organized the encounter online and then went to the planned rendezvous location, where he was apprehended. In May of 2007, he was convicted of attempting to entice a minor to engage in sexual activity and sentenced to 108 months in prison. He was released from detention in September 2017 with the legal requirement to register as a sex offender and report to a supervising Federal Probation officer.
On January 21st, 2018, Hatter allegedly stopped reporting to his probation officer, stopped registering as a sex offender and went into hiding.
Probation officials immediately contacted the U.S. Marshals, who began their hunt. During the five-year search for Hatter, information was developed that he had left the United States and traveled to the Philippines.
Later, he was located in Mexico — where he worked as a teacher. On Saturday, with the investigative assistance of the United States Marshals Service and after a brief pursuit, Hatter was apprehended by Mexican authorities, the U.S Marshals Service said.
On Sunday, Hatter was returned to the United States and immediately placed into detention.
In his job as a mentor, trainer and assessor at Carrier Strike Group 4 in Norfolk, Virginia, Chief Petty Officer Reza Ghorashi-Sarvestani is responsible for utilizing his vast technical knowledge and training to help thwart cyber attacks on the U.S. Navy’s East Coast fleet.
And yet it seems that every time he visits family and friends in his hometown of Suwanee, this tech whiz comes close to getting lost. Reza says he has to use GPS to get around the growing town. For much of his 16-year career in the Navy, Reza has deployed on submarines and various commands in support of the Navy’s information warfare and operations.
Reza’s main job is to bring sailors up to speed on the latest in cyber defense, on land and at sea. A 2004 graduate of North Gwinnett High School, he enrolled in Georgia Perimeter College right after graduation, but felt what he was learning wasn’t lining up with his professional interests. Referring to himself as an “East Coast sailor all my life,” Reza began his Naval career as a fire control technician on submarines in Groton, Connecticut. He then began training to be an Information Systems Technician and pulled double duty on subs, taking the “side job” of tending to the vessel’s computer network.
He then taught incoming Information Systems Technicians in Groton (location of the Naval Submarine Base New London) and in 2012 transitioned into a Cryptologic Technicians Networks expert and was stationed with Crypto Warfare Group 6 in Fort Meade, Maryland (home of the National Security Agency, United States Cyber Command, the Central Security Service and the Defense Information Systems Agency).
Prior to his arrival at Norfolk Naval several months ago, Reza was attached to Navy Cyber Defense Operations Command in Suffolk, Virginia, for four years. He said in his new position he enjoys “the best of both worlds.”
The long lines to get into the new Whataburger location in Kennesaw could be a look into what can be expected at The Exchange @ Gwinnett next year when the Buford Whataburger location opens its doors.
Whataburger announced earlier this year that the Buford store would be one of six locations that the Texas-based restaurant chain planned to open in Georgia in 2023. Construction on the Buford restaurant has proceeded in the months since then, but the chain has not yet announced an exact opening date.
The restaurant will have 3,746-square feet of space, according to development permits filed with Gwinnett County in March.
In addition to the Buford location, which will overlook Buford Drive at the entrance to the Exchange @ Gwinnett, Whataburger will open locations in Cumming, Commerce, Dawsonville and two locations in Athens in 2023. A Woodstock location was expected to open by the end of this year.
Last year, Snellville officials said the developer working on the Scenic Pointe on Scenic Highway had been in talks to include a Whataburger location in that development, and even included a rendering of a Whataburger location in its proposed site elevations that were submitted to city officials for consideration. A Snellville location was not mentioned in the chain's announcement about its metro Atlanta expansion in March, but county records show Whataburger submitted a building permit application to Gwinnett officials two days before Thanksgiving for a new store at 1436 Scenic Highway.
The Kennesaw location opened to long lines of cars on Monday. On Friday, the drive-thru line for the restaurant wrapped around the building and out of parking lot and down a street behind the store. Two Cobb County police officers were on hand to direct traffic.
Gwinnett County police have asked the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to look into an officer involved shooting that resulted in the death of a man early Saturday morning in unincorporated Norcross.
Gwinnett police were called to 1250 Tech Drive at about 1 a.m. on a report from a security guard about a suspicious person. The man was allegedly wielding a knife as he approached the security guard while she was in her patrol car in front of Food Depot and asked her if she was armed. A GCPD patrol officer and his supervisor were the first to arrive on scene. They both observed the man with a knife in his hand and proceeded to give verbal commands. The man refused demands to drop his knife and ran towards one of the officers. Both officers discharged their firearms. The suspect was shot in the torso. It is not clear what the man intended to do, according to police. The GBI has been requested because it was an officer-involved shooting.
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