Community Corner

Regional Roundup: Boating Accident Victim Identified, Suspect in Loganville Standoff Dies, and Madam Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy

A look at top Patch stories from around Georgia.

 

--Cumming Patch

The Georgia Department of Natural Resources as identified the 59-year-old man as Stephen Blake Jones, 59, of Duluth.

Find out what's happening in Oconeewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Jones and a woman, who was seriously injured in the accident, were in a 32-foot pontoon boat reportedly struck by a ski boat sometime between 11 p.m. and midnight Saturday, said Major Stephen Adams of the Georgia DNR.

The couple in the 21-foot ski boat are identified as Steven Parker, 32, and Ashley LeBlanc, 30, both of Cumming, according to Adams.

Find out what's happening in Oconeewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The boat collision is believed to have occurred approximately 200 yards from the face of the dam back toward Lower Overlook Park inside Gwinnett County.

Adams told Cumming Patch the agency's Critical Incident Reconstruction Team is currently reconstructing the accident. He said it would take about 30 days before the investigation is complete and the final report is released.

 

-- Loganville-Grayson Patch

An overnight police standoff Friday to Saturday in Loganville ended with the suspect dead.

According to Chief Mike McHugh, Richard Ferris (believed to be about 41) and police exchanged gunfire at about 3 a.m. and then again at 3:30 a.m. It is believed that Ferris possibly was hit during one of those exchanges and subsequently died. McHugh said Ferris was heavily armed with a rapid-fire weapon as well as a handgun. Ferris had opened fire on police after they threw gas into the home in an attempt to flush him out. There was never a hostage situation as Ferris was alone in the home during the entire incident.

McHugh said it began at about 6:30 p.m. Friday after police were asked to make a welfare check on the home at 1205 Granite Lane in Loganville. Authorities in North Carolina contacted police after Ferris is alleged to have shot a man there yesterday before returning to Loganville. The man in North Carolina survived his injuries and was able to alert authorities that the woman in Loganville could be in danger.

McHugh said there would be a full investigation by the GBI into the circumstances surrounding the shooting.

 

– Marietta Patch

A Marietta madam pleaded guilty in federal court last week to her role in a prostitution ring that brought illegal immigrants to metro Atlanta to work in brothels.

Luz M. Gutierrez, 56, was  in an operation involving federal, state and local law enforcement, including the .

She used illegal immigrants as prostitutes and housekeepers, U.S. Attorney Sally Quillian Yates said in a news release. Police  in the 300 block of Oakridge Drive in Marietta.

 

 


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