LOCA^OP STORIES
The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com
Friday, June 26, 2020 3A
Police: Suspect
accused of using
pepper spray
during robberies
BY NICK WATSON
nwatson@gainesvilletimes.com
A Gainesville woman allegedly pepper sprayed one per
son and threatened to use it against others after a pair of
armed robberies in June, police said.
Gainesville Police investigated a theft case from mid
night Saturday, June 20, at the Jesse Jewell Parkway CVS,
where police say Summers allegedly stole items worth less
than $300. Cpl. Jessica Van said Summers was near the
store clerk and showed the clerk the pepper spray.
Around 9 a.m. the next day, Summers allegedly left
the Family Dollar on Atlanta Highway without paying for
items stashed in a plastic tote, Van said.
The employee approaching Summer was allegedly
sprayed in the face with pepper spray. The employee suf
fered superficial injuries and irritation from the spray.
Surveillance footage helped police “piece together”
Summers’ identity, Van said.
Gainesville Police officers responded around 6 a.m.
Wednesday, June 24, to the West Ridge Road QuikTrip to a
report of a woman knocking over shelves and threatening
to use pepper spray on the convenience store employee.
“Gainesville Officers quickly arrived on scene and
immediately recognized Summers’ name from previous
investigations,” Van said.
Van said the police’s investigation into these three cases
“have led to Summers’ connection to other pending cases
throughout the county and city.”
The case is still under investigation.
Defense attorney Brett Willis declined to comment.
Flowery Branch OKs 2020-21
budget, proposed tax rate
Flowery Branch’s proposed tax rate and budget for 2020-21
received final approval at the City Council meeting Thursday,
June 25.
The city’s proposed tax rate is staying the same at 3.264
mills, with 1 mill equal to $1 per $1,000 in assessed property
value. Under that formula, a $250,000 home would be taxed
at $326.40.
That means a hike for residents with rising property assess
ments. The tax bill would remain the same for homeowners
who saw no change in home values.
While property tax revenues are generally the same in the
$5.1 million budget taking effect July 1, there are revenue
losses elsewhere, such as in local option sales taxes, which
are dropping from $1 million to $750,000, or by 25%.
Local governments have had to wrestle with lost revenue
from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Jeff Gill
Commissioners vote to begin
right-of-way for Sardis Connector
The Hall County Board
of Commissioners voted
Thursday to approve a
contract with the Georgia
Department of Transporta
tion that will begin the right-
of-way acquisition process
for the Sardis Connector.
Hall County is responsible
for the design, engineering
and right-of-way acquisition
for the project, while the
state will pay for construc
tion. The county contribu
tion is $27.5 million, with
$17.5 million coming from
the county’s current special
purpose local option sales
tax, SPLOST VII. SPLOST
VIII funds will be used for
the other $10 million.
The state’s contribution
will be about $31 million.
The connector road will
begin at the Sardis Road and
Chestatee Road intersection
and go north to Ga. 60 near
the intersection of Mount
Vernon Road. Maps are avail
able on the county website.
Right-of-way acquisition
is expected to be finished in
July 2022, with 156 parcels
affected. Construction is
projected to be done in 2024.
The contract was
approved as part of the com
missioners’ consent agenda.
All commissioners voted
to approve the consent
agenda, with the exception
of Commissioner Jeff Stowe,
who abstained from voting
to avoid a potential conflict
of interest on another item.
Megan Reed
ADAME
■ Continued from 1A
their cars over protesters,”
McCall said in a statement
to The Times. “We’ve all
seen the comments on social
media livestreams. Some
of these comments have
even been reported with no
arrests. We believe that Mr.
Adame’s statements are not
threats but that he’s been
arrested because he has been
a longtime activist who has
been vocal about the need
for police reform. It is seri
ous concern to anyone who
values the First Amendment
that a man can be arrested
for a retweet.”
When asked for more
information regarding the
arrest, the Sheriff’s Office
said the “probable cause sup
porting the charge and arrest
is very clear and is outlined”
in the information previously
provided to The Times.
“Mr. Adame was arrested
because he broke the law,”
Sheriff’s Office spokesman
Derreck Booth wrote in an
email. “While we understand
the desire for details, we just
can’t disseminate evidence
during an open and active
investigation.”
The Times has sent follow
up questions asking if other
people have been investi
gated and what prompted the
Adame investigation.
The case is still under
investigation.
House Dems pass police
overhaul; Senate stalls
Congress at impasse as GOP policing bill blocked earlier in week
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., joined by House Democrats spaced for social
distancing, speaks during a news conference on the House East Front Steps on Capitol
Hill in Washington, Thursday, June 25, ahead of the House vote on the George Floyd
Justice in Policing Act of 2020.
BY LISA MASCAR0
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - House
Democrats approved a far-
reaching police overhaul
Thursday, a vote heavy with
emotion and symbolism as a
divided Congress struggles
to address the global outcry
over the deaths of George
Floyd and other Black
Americans.
House Speaker Nancy
Pelosi gathered with mem
bers of the Congressional
Black Caucus on the Capi
tol steps, challenging oppo
nents not to allow the deaths
to have been in vain or the
public support for changes
to go unmatched. But the
collapse of a Senate Repub
lican bill leaves final legisla
tion in doubt.
“Exactly one month ago,
George Floyd spoke his final
words — ‘I can’t breathe’ —
and changed the course of
history,” Pelosi said.
She said the Senate
faces a choice “to honor
George Floyd’s life or to do
nothing.”
The George Floyd Justice
in Policing Act is perhaps
the most ambitious set of
proposed changes to police
procedures and account
ability in decades. Backed
by the nation’s leading
civil rights groups, it aims
to match the moment of
demonstrations that filled
streets across the nation. It
has almost zero chance of
becoming law.
On the eve of the vote,
President Donald Trump’s
administration said he
would veto the bill. And Sen
ate Majority Leader Mitch
McConnell has also said it
would not pass the Republi
can-held chamber.
After the GOP polic
ing bill stalled this week,
blocked by Democrats,
Trump shrugged.
“If nothing happens with
it, it’s one of those things,”
Trump said. “We have dif
ferent philosophies. ”
Congress is now at a
familiar impasse despite
protests outside their door
and polling that shows
Americans overwhelm
ingly want changes after the
deaths of Floyd, Breonna
Taylor and others in inter
actions with law enforce
ment. The two parties are
instead appealing to voters
ahead of the fall election,
which will determine con
trol of the House, Senate and
White House.
“We hear you. We see
you. We are you,” said Rep.
Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y.,
during the debate.
It has been a month
since Floyd’s May 25 death
sparked a global reckon
ing over police tactics and
racial injustice. Since then,
funeral services were held
for Rayshard Brooks, a
Black man shot and killed
by police in Atlanta.
Lawmakers who have
been working from home
during the COVID-19 cri
sis were summoned to the
CAROLYN RASTER I Associated Press
Capitol for an emotional,
hours-long debate. Dozens
voted by proxy under new
pandemic rules.
During the day, several
Democratic lawmakers
read the names of those
killed, shared experiences
of racial bias and echoed
support of Black Lives Mat
ter activists.
Republican lawmakers
countered the bill goes too
far and failed to include
GOP input. “All lives mat
ter,” said Rep. Debbie
Lesko, R-Ariz. New York
Rep. Pete King said it’s time
to stand with law enforce
ment. House GOP leader
Kevin McCarthy decried the
“mob” of demonstrators.
NATHAN BERG I The Times
Nathaniel Shelton helps paint a recreation of Karen Hawk’s mural originally put
up on the OddFellows Building in 1974. Painting for the new mural began on
Thursday, June 25, at the Midtown Greenway in Gainesville.
MURAL
■ Continued from 1A
underway on Thursday, June 25.
Volunteers from the Gents Club,
Hispanic Alliance GA, Beulah
Rucker Museum Mentors and Men-
tees, the Black History Society as
well as members of the Vision 2030
Public Art Committee and students
from UNG are working to complete
the project, which is expected to
be finished by Saturday, weather
permitting.
Hawk’s design, which was based
in part on the song “Jesus Loves the
Little Children,” includes the colors
red, yellow, black and white, and is
meant to represent the melting pot
of American cultures, according to
Hawk.
“I think it’s really good timing for
this sentiment to be brought out,” she
said. “It takes all of us to paint and
put it up on the wall, and it takes all
of us to be a country.”
The mural’s design began as a doo
dle Hawk made as a college junior in
1974 that caught the eye of one of her
art professors. She and the professor
worked to find a building on which to
display the design, and once a loca
tion for the mural had been identi
fied, Hawk received help painting it
from an unlikely source.
The Gents Club was a group orga
nized by Nathaniel Shelton, a former
Butler High School science and math
teacher. Shelton brought together 13
boys “who people didn’t want to deal
with” to form the club and started
getting them involved in community
service projects. The group did every
thing from raking leaves to putting on
pageants, and when Shelton heard
about the planned mural project,
he was quick to get the Gents Club
involved.
Shelton, along with a few former
members of the Gents Club, came
out Thursday to be a part of the new
project. As he painted the very same
design he and his club helped put up
nearly 50 years ago, memories of
Gents Club activities started to flood
back to him.
“It was a learning process for the
kids,” Shelton said. “As well as it was
an experience of what the commu
nity was like, and the people in the
community getting a chance to know
these kids.”
The re-creation of the mural
started to come together around a
year ago when Frank Norton Jr.,
chair of Vision 2030 Public Art Com
mittee, discovered a black-and-white
photo of the mural on a Facebook
page dedicated to Gainesville history.
After doing some research, Norton
contacted Hawk about the project,
and things started to get underway.
Fox Gradin, an artist born and
raised in Gainesville who also studied
art at NGCSU, recreated an outline of
the mural earlier this month. Gradin
said it took her about 14 total hours
to get the outline of the mural drawn
and ready for volunteers to paint.
In addition to Hawk, Shelton and
Gents Club member Tim Mize were
among the first people to start add
ing color to the mural. Mize said he
was excited to get involved with the
project, partly because he did not get
to help with the original mural since
it was put up during football season,
when he was too busy to participate,
and partly because he supports the
mural’s message of unity.
“It’s just time for people to come
together,” he said. “Because I don’t
want my kids to grow up going
through the same thing I went
through, and they don’t want their
kids to do the same thing. It’s time
for black, white, brown, any race
to get together and be a part of this
that’s going on right now.”
COUNTY
■ Continued from 1A
Parks and Leisure.
Based on the school system’s current
millage rate, 65.02% would go to Hall
County Schools. The school system has
not yet finalized its budget for the next
fiscal year.
The county’s fiscal year restarts
July 1.
The budget was approved as part of
the commissioners’ consent agenda. All
commissioners voted to approve the
consent agenda, except for Commis
sioner Jeff Stowe, who abstained from
voting to avoid a potential conflict of
interest on another item.
Megan Reed
SCOUT
■ Continued from 1A
reasons unrelated to the Scout
camp. Selman said both the boy
and the other seven members of his
group were isolated while their par
ents were contacted and informed
of the situation.
The boy was picked up by his
parents and taken home. The other
seven Scouts remained at the camp
for the day, as their parents opted
not to come pick them up.
Selman said the boy was not
exhibiting any symptoms of COVID-
19 as of Wednesday.
The daily number of confirmed
cases across the U.S. Thursday, June
25 closed in on the peak reached
during the dark days of April.
While greatly expanded testing
probably accounts for some of the
increase, experts say other mea
sures indicate the virus is making
a comeback. Daily deaths, hospital
izations and the percentage of tests
that are coming back positive have
also been rising over the past few
weeks in parts of the country,
mostly in the South and West.
The U.S. recorded 34,500 COVID-
19 cases Wednesday, slightly fewer
than the day before but still near the
high of 36,400 reached on April 24,
according to a count kept by Johns
Hopkins University. The daily aver
age has climbed by more than 50%
over the past two weeks, an Associ
ated Press analysis found.
Whether the rise in cases trans
lates into an equally dire surge
in deaths across the U.S. overall
will depend on a number of fac
tors, experts said, most crucially
whether government officials make
the right decisions. Deaths per day
in the U.S. number around 600 after
peaking at about 2,200 in mid-April.
“It is possible, if we play our
cards badly and make a lot of mis
takes, to get back to that level. But
if we are smart, there’s no reason to
get to 2,200 deaths a day,” said Dr.
Ashish Jha, director of Harvard’s
Global Health Institute.
The nation’s daily death toll
has actually dropped markedly
over the past few weeks even as
cases climbed, a phenomenon that
experts said may reflect the advent
of treatments, better efforts to pre
vent infections at nursing homes,
and a rising proportion of cases
among younger people, who are
more likely than their elders to sur
vive a bout with COVID-19.
“This is still serious,” said Dr.
Robert Redfield, director of the
Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention. “But I’m asking people
to recognize that we’re in a differ
ent situation today than we were in
March or April.”
Several states set single-day case
records this week, including Ari
zona, California, Nevada, Texas and
Oklahoma.
The U.S. has greatly ramped up
testing in the past few months, and
it is now presumably finding many
less-serious cases that would have
gone undetected earlier in the out
break, when the availability of test
ing was limited and sicker people
were often given priority.
But there are other more clear-
cut warning signs, including a rising
number of deaths per day in states
such as Arizona and Alabama.
The number of confirmed infec
tions, in any case, is a poor measure
of the outbreak. CDC officials, rely
ing on blood tests, estimated Thurs
day that 20 million Americans have
been infected with the coronavirus
since it arrived in the U.S. That is
about 6% percent of the population
and roughly 10 times as many infec
tions as the 2.3 million that have
been confirmed.
Officials have long known that
many people were infected without
knowing and many cases are being
missed because of gaps in testing.
Worldwide, over 9.4 million peo
ple have been confirmed infected,
and nearly a half-million have died,
including over 122,000 in the U.S.,
the world’s highest toll, by Johns
Hopkins’ count.
The Associated Press contributed to
this report.
