About The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (April 4, 2023)
Growth moratorium proposed in Flowery Branch. INSIDE, 3A Tuesday, April 4, 2023 | GAINESVILLE, GEORGIA | gainesvilletimes.com Police: Men electrocuted while stealing from substation BY BEN ANDERSON AND NICK WATSON nwatson@ gainesvilletimes.com banderson@ gainesvilletimes.com Two men were electro cuted after police believe they were trying to steal from a Gainesville power substation, police said. The two men, who have not been identified, were found around 3 a.m. Mon day, April 3, in the area behind Liquid Nation Brewing on Atlanta Highway. “It occurred in a fenced-off, well-marked area behind our brew ery where there’s a live transformer there, which actually doesn’t supply any power to our brew ery. It actually is located back there, but it supplies power to the rest of some of the other buildings,” said Pap Datta, owner of Liquid Nation Brewing. Datta said the bodies weren’t removed from the area until around noon. Hall County Deputy Coroner Kevin Wetzel said the bodies were transported to the Geor gia Bureau of Investiga tion for autopsy. ■ Please see MEN, 3A Two men were electrocuted after police believe they were trying to steal from a Gainesville power substation located behind Liquid Nation Brewing on Atlanta Highway. SCOTT ROGERS The Times ‘Shot... with his own gun’ Photos by SCOTT ROGERS I The Times Quaran Jackson enters Hall County Magistrate Court Monday, April 3, for a committal hearing. Jackson, 17, is accused of shooting Gabriel Ledford, 19, of Gainesville, near the 3000 building at Summit Place at Limestone Place around 5 p.m. on Jan. 9. Investigator testifies in Gainesville shooting involving 17-year-old suspect BY NICK WATSON nwatson@gainesvilletimes.com A Gainesville teenager told law enforcement he was shot at with his own gun, leading to serious inju ries that almost cost him his life, according to court testimony. Quaran Jamir Jackson, 17, of Gillsville, appeared Mon day, April 3, in Magistrate Court with attorney Chloe Owens in an attempted mur der case. Jackson also faces charges of possession of a firearm during the commis sion of a crime, aggravated battery, aggravated assault and armed robbery from the Jan. 9 shooting in Gaines ville. He was arrested a month after the shooting. Gainesville Police Inves tigator Brad Raper said it happened around 4:51 p.m. Jan. 9 on Shades Valley Lane. Officers were called out to a person who had been shot, finding Gabriel Ledford, 19, inside his moth er’s apartment. Ledford was transported to Northeast Georgia Medical Center in critical condition after losing a “tre mendous amount of blood,” Raper said. “They gave him multiple (transfusions) of blood to bring him back,” Raper tes tified. “It was told to me that he would not have made it had he not been so close to the trauma center, given the amount of blood that he was losing.” Five shell casings were found at the scene, all 9 mm caliber. Ledford said he was out side waiting for a friend to come over when he was approached by a vehicle pulling up behind him, according to Raper’s testimony. The 19-year-old said a per son jumped out and grabbed his backpack. “Part of Gabriel’s state ment was he had a gun in his backpack, that they got out, they tried to take his phone,” Raper said. “They tried to take his gun from him and they ultimately just took his phone and left the scene with his phone. But he claimed they took his gun away from him and shot him with his own gun as well as another gun that they had brought.” Ledford said he did not know who they were, Raper said. Ledford’s gun was found at the residence, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was able to determine there were two different firearms used. The other gun has not been found, the investigator said. The stolen cellphone is also still missing despite attempts to ping and call it. After determining who had the car, law enforce ment arrested another 17-year-old Gainesville man following a traffic stop. Raper said that man told him a story that the inves tigator has since debunked, but a search of his phone found a message between him and Jackson roughly an hour after the shooting. Raper said Ledford sent a name and a picture of the person who he thought it was, identifying Jackson, though he wasn’t completely certain. Raper obtained search ■ Please see JACKSON, 3A Quaran Jackson sits in Hall County Magistrate Court Monday, April 3, for a committal hearing. Jackson, 17, is accused of shooting Gabriel Ledford, 19, of Gainesville, near the 3000 building at Summit Place at Limestone Place around 5 p.m. on Jan. 9. Hall County rehab expected to open in 2025 BY JEFF GILL jgill@gainesvilletimes.com State approval has been given to a new long term physical rehabilitation center at 2500 Limestone Parkway in Gainesville. Construction of the $62 million building is expected to begin later this year. Northeast Georgia Health System and Life- point Rehabilitation are teaming up to build the 40-room, 61,000-square-foot center, which is expected to open in 2025. The project involves tearing down the old J & J Foods, which had operated a grocery store at the site between 2005 and 2018. When it closed, the store was known as The Market on Limestone. Inpatient rehabilitation services have been offered since 1989 at Northeast Georgia Medi cal Center Gainesville, which has a 24-bed unit. The new facility will feature a wing for brain injury and stroke patients, and a therapy suite including a gym, private rooms and a cooking room. It also will have an Activities of Daily Living therapy apartment and rehabilita tion equipment, according to an NGHS press release on Monday, April 3. The facility will provide intensive nursing, physical, occupational and speech pathology services for adults recovering from conditions such as stroke, neurological disease, brain or spinal cord injury and other debilitating ill nesses or injuries. ■ Please see REHAB, 3A Rendering provided by Northeast Georgia Health System State approval has been given to a new 61,000-square-foot inpatient physical rehabilitation center at 2500 Limestone Parkway in Gainesville. Popular thrift store franchise to open Gainesville spot BY DONNELL SUGGS dsuggs@gainesvilletimes.com A Value Village franchise is opening in Gaines ville, and the owner believes it will add another reasonably priced option for clothing and furniture. “The area really needs to have something with a cost point that’s better for the value, ” said Value Village franchise owner Tom Stutzman. “There’s nothing in this area like us and I don’t think any one does the job that we do.” Located next to Get Air Trampoline Park in the Browns Bridge Crossing shopping center, the new store will have 30-35 employees, Stutzman said. The store features wide aisles, making it easier for employees and customers to coexist among the clothes, shoes, socks, new and used furniture and household items, said Stutzman, who has been in the retail business for over four decades and personally owns 11 Value Village franchises throughout metro Atlanta. “All of our stores are like this. I just think it makes it easier to shop,” Stutzman said. He added that the interior and exterior con struction, including the shipment and placement of the goods for the space, took just under three weeks to complete. A storefront had to be created and carved out of the brick wall that was once in its place. Major utilities were also installed or replaced in the space, including the ventilation for central air conditioning and heat. Value Village purchases all of the store’s mer chandise from the American Kidney Fund, a Maryland-based qualified 501(c)(3) organization ■ Please see VALUE, 3A
