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VOLUME 24 NUMBER 2
APRIL 7, 2018
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Serving DeKalb, Fulton, Gwinnett, Henry and Rockdale Counties
DeKalb Police seek witnesses in Easter shooting of 3-year-old By Valerie J. Morgan
The child, T’Rhigi Diggs, was shot in the chest as his eKalb County mother, Rashonda Craig, was police are seeking driving around 11:30 p.m. witnesses who on Bouldercrest Road near may be able to Eastland Road in East Atlanta. help investigators locate the Police initially thought the gunman who shot and killed a single bullet came from a gray 3-year-old boy on Easter night or silver Dodge that Craig as he rode in the backseat of told police pulled up beside his mother’s SUV. her black SUV. However,
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Police Chief James Conroy told On Common Ground News on April 5 that police now believe the shot actually came from a nearby gas station. “Based on the trajectory, the shot could not have been fired from the Dodge. We think it came from the gas station,” Conroy said.
Police are seeking the occupants of the Dodge, as well as three potential witnesses who were at the Texaco convenience store. Conroy said surveillance video from the store shows witnesses who may be able to provide information to police.
SEE SHOOTING page 3
T’Rhigi Diggs
Major repairs set for DeKalb County Jail after mold found
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By Travis Hudgons
pproximately 300 inmates at the DeKalb County Jail are being relocated to neighboring jails in Rockdale, Fulton and Clayton counties as work begins to repair moldy, leaky shower units in inmate housing. DeKalb County Sheriff Jeffery L. Mann announced at an April 5 press conference that a major construction project, “Operation Clean Jail 2018,” will begin April 9. Mann said the project is expected to last three months with an estimated $1.5 million minimum cost. Construction will begin immediately, even though the cost of the unbudgeted expense has yet to be approved by county commissioners. “This is essential for the ongoing health and safety of our staff and inmates,” said Mann. Several types of mold were discovered in inmate housing units after routine maintenance, Mann said. It was later determined that the likely cause of the mold was from leaky shower units in the inmate housing units. Tests determined that the mold discovered posed no immediate health threats to jail staff
DeKalb County Sheriff Jeffery L. Mann (at podium) announces ‘Operation Clean Jail 2018.’ Photo by Travis Hudgons
or inmates, Mann said. The project will cover shower repairs, mold remediation and rebuilding of affected areas. Rockdale County Sheriff Eric Levett, who was among the county sheriffs and jail officials attending the press conference, said temporarily housing some of DeKalb’s inmates for up to 30 days
as Mann requested would not pose a problem. “It’s a routine thing where we house inmates from other facilities for various reasons,” said Levett, adding the inmates will be housed in their own unit and staff from DeKalb County Jail will be supervising them. Mann said that “Operation Clean Jail 2018” is a major undertaking for
the 23-year-old complex and that he wanted to move “swiftly” to address the problem before it got worse. Mann said that construction would not interfere with the normal jail operations or with court transportations. Affected inmates, he said, will still be able to receive video visitation and make phone calls.
BILL DIES: Rockdale’s BOC will not expand to five seats Rockdale County’s threemember Board of Commissioners (BOC) will not expand to five members—at least not immediately. Senate Bill 264, sponsored by former Sen. Rick Jeffares, died in the House of Representatives before a final vote on March 29, the last day of the Legislative Session. As a result, there will be no voter referendum when the general election is held in November. Rockdale’s BOC currently has two commissioners and a chairman, all of whom are elected at large and all of whom are Democrats. The legislation had called for four commission seats elected by districts, and one seat—the chairman’s position—to be elected at-large. Jeffares, a Republican who resigned as senator to run for lieutenant governor, introduced the bill in 2017 as a general bill, which would have avoided local delegation scrutiny. Republican Brian Strickland, who was elected in a special election on Jan. 9, 2018 to fill
Jeffares’ seat, carried the bill during this year’s Legislative Session but worked to revise the bill to require a voter referendum. State Rep. Vernon Jones, a Democrat who represents District 91 and chairs Rockdale’s House delegation, criticized Sen. Tonya Anderson, a Democrat who chairs Rockdale’s Senate Delegation, for working with Strickland to dismantle the county’s three-member board of commissioners. “I’m disappointed that Sen. Tonya Anderson who represents District 43 would ignore the will of the people in an attempt to throw out the current Rockdale charter in order to curry favors from Republicans,” said Jones. “I’m also disappointed that she would ignore the voters of Rockdale County in her attempt to allow the outgoing governor to appoint a new state court judge, instead of the people electing a judge of their choice. “It is sad that during the
State Rep. Vernon Jones
Sen. Tonya Anderson
50th anniversary of Dr. MLK’s assassination that we still have agent provocateurs carrying other folks' water in the middle of the night.” Anderson said Jones’ blame concerning the proposed bill to expand the BOC from three seats to five is misplaced. “I’m not sure what he means because what I actually did is agreed to make the bill a referendum. By making it a referendum, it allows
the voters to decide if they wanted three seats or five. It could have gone through as a general bill and they wouldn’t have had that opportunity to decide,” said Anderson. Anderson said she had no control over the amendment Strickland made to the state court judgeship bill. She said she vote Jones’ bill to give voters the power to elect a judge of their choosing rather than the governor making the appointment.