When Athens-Clarke police received a 911 call shortly after 1 a.m. on April 24 about a man breaking into a car, an officer responded only to find the thief had disappeared into the night.
The suspect, in his hurry to escape when surprised by the vehicle s owner, had run out of his shoes, which were left behind.
Officer Craig Turner summoned to assist the nightshift officers arrived with his K-9 partner, Bruno, an almost 3-year-old German shepherd trained in tracking, drug detection and suspect apprehension.
An officer on scene had “secured one shoe and we took the other shoe with us on the track. Essentially, it’s a scent article,” said Turner, a member of the police department’s K-9 unit, which has two other dogs. The unit officially began operating in July 2020.
COVID response update
The data, presented by ACC Manager Blaine Williams, showed an overall decline in new COVID-19 infection rates since February in Clarke County and among ACC government employees, consistent with state and nationwide numbers.
Williams said over 250 ACC employees in the tier 1A+ category for vaccine priority, which includes first responders and people over 65, have now been vaccinated.
District 3 Commissioner Melissa Link asked Williams if any county employees were hesitant to receive the vaccine, and asked if the county could require its eligible employees to receive it. Williams said itâs likely that not all eligible county employees have taken it since the county cannot require them to be vaccinated.
Athens-Clarke police arrested a 20-year-old Athens man late Tuesday on a charge of murdering an Athens teen killed near his home early this month.
The suspect, Kenyas Trevion Yearby of Summerbrook Circle, was also served with a probation violation when he was booked into the Clarke County Jail, where he remains without bond.
Yearby is charged in the shooting death of Keshawn Gainer, 15, a former Cedar Shoals High School student slain on Westchester Circle in a neighborhood off Tallassee Road.
“This senseless crime was solved quickly because of the dogged determination of the officers and detectives of the police department, the coroner’s office, the GBI, and a vigilant community,” Police Chief Cleveland Spruill said in a statement released Wednesday.