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BCSO reports: Beer bottle thrown at deputy’s car; man jumps off bridge to avoid arrest
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From Bryan County Sheriff’s Office reports:

Criminal interference with government property, speeding, more: This occurred July 14 around 6:30 p.m.

First, Bryan County 911 dispatched a deputy to man’s house on Oak Hill Road because of someone knocking on his door, yelling at him and wanting to know “why the ‘Sheriff’ was there.”

When the deputy got to the complainant’s house, he walked outside and started telling the deputy what happened when a pickup drove up and “came to a screeching halt,” behind the deputy’s vehicle, and the driver got out with a beer bottle in his hand and threw it at the back of the deputy’s patrol vehicle.”

“The beer bottle exploded off the back of my patrol vehicle with glass-shrapnel landing everywhere,” the deputy noted, adding he drew his handgun and told the man to get on the ground.

Instead, the driver got back in his pickup and took off, and that led to a chase up 17, onto I-95 south, and then onto I-95 north when the man “used the emergency U-turn area,” and started heading north.

Several RHPD cars helped in an effort to stop the man, but he was able to get away, momentarily.

“It is unknown where (the man) got of I-95 at,” the report said, but he was identified as 35-year-old from Rincon. Warrants for his arrest were taken out and he was in Bryan County Jail as of Tuesday night.

Harassing communications: Deputies were sent July 17 to a Buckhead North address regarding “harassment and threats,” to two residents due to “an incident (that) started several months ago over geese and swans.”

The victims said geese had been removed by the USDA and “there were concerns over swans in the area and getting them removed also,” but some neighborhood residents were against it “and signed a petition for getting the removal of the swans stopped.”

Then, “the situation escalated when someone contacted a group known as Defense of Animal Supporters,” which is California based and has more than 250,000 members, the report said.

That evidently led to harassment of the victims, who told deputies they’ve gotten threatening emails and phone messages. “They both have received over 6,000 emails in a short period of time on both personal and business email accounts,” the report said.

“The main issue is someone miscommunicated to the group and to residents that the geese had been killed after their removal from the area and the concerns were that the swans would suffer the same treatment. There were also threats of protests and outside influences coming to the area and disrupting the neighborhood and possible violence against the HOA persons, and the residents of the area, plus concerns over property damages,” the report continued, noting “It appeared the phone calls and emails were mainly out of state.”

The complainants were told how to take security measures and could request a BCSO deputy to attend an HOA meeting to discuss the matter.

A deputy went back to follow up after the victims said they again got emails “berating them for their action with the geese and swans,” and one said she got “multiple phone calls last night to the point she left her home and work phone off the hook, and had to turn her cell phone off after “someone gave Victim 2’s personal information to the group,” etc.

In a sign of the times, the deputy told the victims they needed to contact Facebook to see “if that site and postings can be shut down for the misinformation they are spreading about both victims and the HOA itself.”

Simple assault: Around 10:39 a.m. on July 18 deputies were told a caller spotted a man and woman with blood on them on Highway 17 near Kings Ferry Landing. “The caller advised of a male walking down the roadway with a weapon, and the female in a gold car on the side of Highway 17 N near Kings Ferry with blood on her.”

Richmond Hill Police Department officers also responded, and found and identified the woman and her boyfriend, who was “walking in the roadway with a knife,” and told the man to stop.

Instead, he “fled on foot and jumped off Kings Ferry bridge and then began to swim away from officers.”

A deputy arrived and spoke with the woman, who said she and her boyfriend were driving when they got into an argument and he hit her. She declined EMS treatment and was given a case number.

The deputy then went to the boat dock, where officers and another deputy had talked the man out of the water. He told them he was “having thoughts of suicide and wanting to harm himself,” and he was taken to Memorial for evaluation, the report said, noting warrants for battery and obstruction are “forthcoming.”

Employment scam: A Richmond Hill woman reported July 19 she “was the victim of an apparent scam,” in which she reportedly was offered position as a data entry clerk with a company and then sent two checks totaling more than $5,000 and told to deposit and then forward to ta third party.

She later learned they were fraudulent and wanted a report filed so she could try to get a refund from her bank.

 Cruelty to animals: A Harris Trail woman is being charged with cruelty to animals after “multiple complaints”  regarding her dog. “(Animal control officer) had to visit the home numerous times for various complaints, as well as (the owner) failing to provide proper food, water and shelter.” The dog had been taken away from the home in June.

 Shoplifting; Deputies were sent to the Dollar General on Highway 80 in Ellabell around 8;14 p.m. July 19 regarding a robbery. They later found out it was a shoplifting in which a man with a book pack ran out of the store and ran up Highway 280 to the Parker’s, and when deputies went to talk to him he ran off.

Later, a witness said she saw the man put the bookbag in a red car, and deputies tracked down the car and found the book bag, which had inside it “1 Glad sheer vanilla candle (two pack), a single Glade sheer vanilla candle, a Glade tropical blossom single candle, and a Colortex 4-pack tissue,” which added up to about $17.

The store’s security video reportedly showed the shoplifter and the driver of the red car “communicating with one another and it appeared they knew one another.”

The Dollar General employee was given a case number and told to call BCS0 questions or concerns.


Thefts: A man reported July 16 he bought an outboard motor, trolling motor and battery from an uncle for $350 and thought they “may have been stolen, as his uncle is a drug user.” A check at the time turned up no evidence the items were stolen, but the next day deputies were sent to a Highway 204 address regarding a man reporting “he as preparing to go fishing and noticed that his boat motor, trolling motor, batter and seven fishing poles were missing.”

Deputies remembered the man from the day before and it turned out the items belonged to the victim. Arrangements were made to return his property back to him. 

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