Regional Roundup: Father Accused of Throwing Baby, Man Strikes Kitten with Tree Limb, and Toddler Shoots Self in Thumb

- South Cobb Patch

A 30-year-old Austell man has been indicted in connection with the beating of his 8-week-old son.

The indictment, handed down Thursday, alleges that Joseph Rucker McFall shook, threw and hit the infant between Aug. 30, 2012, and Oct. 29, 2012. The baby suffered multiple broken bones, and an acute brain injury that is believed to have left him blind.

Visit South Cobb Patch for more on this story.

- Buford Patch

A Buford man reportedly justified striking a kitten with a tree limb by saying the cat had been "acting like he was going to antagonize my pit bull."

Michael Paul Labron Glover, 40, of 1846 Sturgeon Road in Buford, called 911 on April 2 to report his neighbor's cat had been antagonizing his pit bull, which was chained in his mother's back yard. According to the police report, Glover said the cat had been tearing up his mother's garden as well and he was "sick of it." Glover claimed to have personally witnessed the cat tease his pit bull and that the cat had "no business being on [Glover's] property."

When asked what he did to resolve the issue, Glover reportedly replied, "I saw that little cat outside of my fence acting like he was going to antagonize my pit bull, so I grabbed a little stick and hit him with it."

The little stick, Glover later admitted, was a three-and-a-half foot long tree limb approximately an inch-and-a-half in diameter.

See Buford Patch for more.

Student Arrested After Bringing Gun to Track Meet - Lilburn Patch

An Archer High student has been released from jail after being charged with having a handgun present during a school sporting event. 

David Augustus Lee II of Lawrenceville was arrested March 30 at Parkview High School in Lilburn, where he was attending the fourth annual Big Orange Relays track meet. A witness at Archer High alerted police to the possible presence of a weapon; Lee's arrest followed a search of his vehicle by school officials.

Visit Lilburn Patch for additional details.

Toddler Shoots Self in Thumb - Sandy Springs Patch

A three-year-old child was injured Monday afternoon after shooting himself in the thumb at the home of his father's girlfriend.

Police believe the child crawled under a bed where the girlfriend kept a .380 pistol. The child then discharged the gun, shooting himself in the thumb. 

Sandy Springs Patch has more on this story.

Residents Turn Toxic Site Into Zonolite Park - North Druid Hills Patch

An area that was once an asbestos-poisoned wetland is now a new park in the Emory University area just south of North Druid Hills thanks to local volunteers, including the South Fork Conservancy.

In an article published on the Saporta Report, Ben Smith wrote, "Zonolite Park is 12 acres near Briarcliff and Clifton Roads, where the South Fork of Peachtree Creek parallels railroad tracks. For two decades beginning in 1950, freight trains stopped at the W.R. Grace Co. plant and dumped as much as 1,225 tons of raw material for attic insulation marketed as Zonolite."

Read more on North Druid Hills Patch.