What Oakwood police chief said about hiring and race to Newtown Florist Club
Oakwood Police Chief Tim Hatch says his priority is to hire officers who aren’t just trying to cash paychecks but those who want to invest in their community. However, recruiting a more diverse staff has presented challenges.
The police chief sat down with the Newtown Florist Club, Gainesville’s civil rights group, on Monday, March 8, to discuss the hiring process, his thoughts on having a department that mirrors its community and other issues affecting law enforcement.
The meeting was part of the club’s “Public Policy Committee George Floyd Initiative,” which has been ongoing since summer protests and open-air conversations began in 2020.
Alando Ray Johnson, 33, was arrested on Wednesday, Feb. 10 in the Atlanta area by U.S. Marshals, according to Gainesville Police Lt. Kevin Holbrook.
The Gainesville Police Department has charges related to the October 2020 armed robbery at the Hibachi Express on Thompson Bridge Road as well as the December 2020 armed robbery of the Walgreen s on South Enota [Drive], Holbrook said.
Johnson faces a long list of charges in Gainesville including five counts of armed robbery, five counts of aggravated assault, four counts of kidnapping, five counts of terroristic threats, two counts of theft by taking, two counts of firearm possession by a convicted felon and two counts of possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime.
A suspect in a Roswell murder case was arrested after an hour-long standoff at Northeast Georgia Medical Center in Gainesville early Saturday morning.
Gainesville Police Lieutenant Kevin Holbrook said their officers were dispatched to the hospital at 3:00 a.m. after a man reportedly fled the building with a gun. He had reportedly been brought there by a family member for a medical evaluation. Officers later found him hiding at an unoccupied building at the campus. During this incident, it was determined that 36-year-old Jason Hall of Roswell, the individual we were called to the hospital for, was wanted for murder, Holbrook said. At the time of the initial incident, this information was not known.
11:30 a.m. Teachable moment about the role of music in the civil rights movement
Noon Drum Major for Justice Awards
12:30 p.m. Newtown Florist Club’s Black Business Directory Committee announcement
12:45 p.m. Local youth talk about young people’s involvement in the civil rights movement
1 p.m. Amazing Voices Youth Rally which highlights the importance of arts and culture in the civil rights movement
2 p.m. Virtual Martin Luther King Jr. Day march where community members explain why they march for justice
“The principles of Dr. King’s nonviolence philosophy are so important for anybody that’s active in the community,” Johnson said. “Even though we’re starting with this conversation, this conversation will not be where we will end. We all feel as an organization that we have a responsibility to help this generation and the next understand the value in organizing and mobilizing the spirit of nonviolence.”
Assistant News Director
A New Year s Eve party inside this building in the New Holland community took a deadly turn when a man shot and wounded his wife and a co-worker and then turned the gun on himself. The man s death was one of five in the Gainesville-Hall County area related to domestic violence since Dec. 11, 2020. (Photo: Alyson Shields)
Since early December 2020, five people have died in domestic violence incidents in the Gainesville area, and the violence has raised alarms for law enforcement and victim advocates.
In an crime that remains under investigation by the Hall County Sheriff s Office, two children were stabbed to death in a residence on Crescent Drive on Dec. 11, 2020, allegedly at the hands of their mother. Early on the morning of New Year s Day, Hall County and Gainesville law enforcement officers were called to investigate a crime on Spring Street in New Holland where a Gainesville man shot and critically wounded his wife and one of her co-workers at a hol