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A 45-year-old man is still on the run after shooting his estranged wife in the right shoulder after catching her in bed with another man here March 18. The shooting occurred about 12:45 a.m. in a mobile home at Lot 22 of Bedsole’s Trailer Park off Trice Road.

Alvis Thomas allegedly tore out an air conditioning unit and got inside the trailer.

A verbal altercation ensued and Christian Thomas was shot with her own Ruger 9 mm. handgun. The male with Thomas, Demarco Markell Price of Stockbridge, fled to a nearby trailer and called for help. He was unhurt.

If you have knowledge of the whereabouts of Alvis Thomas, call the LCSO at 770.358.5159. He is considered to be armed and dangerous.

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Deputies from the LCSO raided the Trojan Tire operation next to Circle K (Flash Foods) Tuesday afternoon and made an arrest. Lt. Chad Payne reported the investigation had been ongoing for months and was tied into last week's bust on Stafford Ave.

Rick Moss, 56, was arrested and charged with possession of meth, possession of marijuana and operating a business without a license. Additional charges are pending.

A second male at the scene was detained, questioned and later released.

A female was cuffed and taken to jail to make a statement.

The raid took place just after 3:30 p.m. The tire shop is tucked in behind the convenience store located at the corner of Veterans Parkway and Hwy. 36 West.

To you and yours from all of us here at The Herald Gazette and barnesville.com.

Due to inclement weather Sunday, the drive-thru Easter egg celebration at Summers Field Park was rescheduled. The event is now set for Friday, April 2 from 6-7 p.m.

Cars will enter on Houston Street from College Drive and slowly circle the park, stopping at each station. No foot traffic will be allowed. Have your Easter basket ready and outside the car window and candy will be delivered to you.

Four local churches are teaming up to make this event happen. They are First Baptist, First Methodist, Antioch Baptist and New Life Anointed Ministries.

A strike team consisting of Lamar sheriff's deputies and GBI agents executed search warrants at a home at 123 Stafford Ave. in Barnesville Wednesday morning and arrested Henry Abreu who is no stranger to trouble with the law.
[Full Story »] 

UPDATE: Plane found in South Carolina. No injuries.

A search is underway for a aircraft that may be down in south Lamar County.

The FAA got an emergency call from a two-seat aircraft running low on fuel. Controllers vectored the plane to the Redbone air strip but it never arrived, according to sheriff Brad White.

"We had a plane take off from Redbone and search all of south Lamar County for it. Monroe and Pike are looking for it , too," the sheriff said. A helicopter also joined the search for a time but darkness has now limited the effectiveness of an aerial search.

The first call from the FAA came in at 7:02 p.m. Monday.

If you have seen or heard the plane of any evidence of it, call 911.

UPDATE: Sheriff White said there was no transmission from an emergency beacon locally. Such beacons are required on the vast majority of aircraft.

More to follow...

Barnesville has been back in front of the camera and will be appearing on the the silver screen - or your TV screen - in various film projects.

The TV series ‘Restaurant Impossible’ filmed an episode downtown at Deraney’s Two City Tavern that had crews in town for most of last week. [Full Story »] 

Not long out of custody, Travis Ball is back in jail after sending letters threatening the lives of Jones County deputies.

Though never charged, Ball was the prime suspect in an anthrax threat at The Herald Gazette office in Barnesville in 2013 that shutdown the west side of town for five hours. He was also convicted of arson in Upson County and suspected in arson fires here in Lamar County.

From Jones County sheriff Butch Reese:

On Tuesday, March 23, our office, with assistance from the United States Marshals Service, the Lamar County Sheriff’s Office and the Butts County Sheriff’s Office, arrested Travis Leroy Ball, age 54, in regards to multiple incidents of Terroristic Threats and Acts.

Ball, who is from Barnesville, is believed to have mailed several letters to both the Jones County Sheriff’s Office and the Jones County Superior Court Clerk’s Office over the last week, threatening to kill employees and blow up buildings. Included in both letters was a powdery substance which the letters claimed was Anthrax. Investigators executed a search warrant at Ball’s residence in Barnesville yesterday and located similar letters which had not been mailed yet.

Ball was arrested in 2017 for a similar offense in which he mailed threatening hoax anthrax letters to the State Bar of Georgia, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Ball was sentenced to two years in federal prison followed by three years supervised release in that case.

For much more on this story, see the 3.30.21 print edition of The Herald Gazette.

A 30-year-old woman charged with not seeking medical attention for her two-month-old daughter who suffered 27 bone injuries/fractures was released from jail on bond March 16.

Jessica Miranda Coffey was granted bond in the amount of $50,000 by Judge Arch McGarity. [Full Story »] 

An episode of the popular TV series ‘Snapped’ covering the murder of Donald Clark and the subsequent trial of his wife Jennifer Clark will debut Sunday, March 21 on Oxygen Network. The episode will air at 6 p.m. and 9 p.m.

Jennifer Clark is serving life plus 60 years for beating Donald Clark to death while he slept and dumping his body in a Redbone cornfield.

The episode was filmed here last summer.

The Lamar County Sheriff's Office has issued a lookout for a 45-year-old man who allegedly shot his girlfriend in the shoulder at Bedsole's Trailer Park off Trice Road at about 1:30 a.m. Thursday.

Alvis Eugene Thomas is wanted for aggravated assault. He is described as a black male standing five feet 11 inches and weighting 165 pounds.

Thomas is considered to be armed and dangerous.

He fled the shooting scene in a gold Ford Crown Victoria with a drive-out tag. The car was later found abandoned in Griffin.

If you have any information, call the sheriff's office at 770.358.5159.

More to follow...

Large teams of volunteers will take to the streets Saturday to participate in the reborn Great Day of Service Saturday. The action begins at 9 a.m. with a send-off at Summers Field Park.

Volunteers will attack multiple projects including a sock drive for LC schools; cleaning and organizing at the Lamar Arts Depot; building cubbies at the Boys & Girls Club; roof repair and ramp work in conjunction with Ramps of Love at a home on Washington Street; fencing and repairs at New Life Anointed Ministries; pressure washing at the health department; assembling sensory kits at the primary school; street beautification on College Drive; kennel cleaning at Dolly Goodpuppy Society; cleaning at Nellie’s Park behind the E.P. Roberts Center and house repair projects along Mill Street.

Bringing back the service event is the brainchild of Jeremy Monroe of the Gordon faculty.

The planning committee also includes Jessica Traylor, Alisha Small, Genevieve Chan, Kellie Mercer, Dorothy Carter, Cyndi McDonald, Niall Matthieson, Patsy Fountain, Jason Teal, Andy King, Joe Andrews, Eddie Felton, Nancy Dadd, Ryran Traylor, Ulanda BArkley, Graquetta Harris, Linda Olivier, James Butler, Andy Marlowe, Don Mapp and Britt Gaylor.

Volunteers are needed and welcomed. Contact any committee member or call Monroe at 678.359.5887 for more information.

Lamar County voters go to the polls today to cast ballots in a special election to select a chief magistrate judge and determine whether a one percent sales tax to benefit the local school system will continue to be collected.

The magistrate race was necessitated by the death last year of Judge Karen Rhyne Henson. Four candidates are seeking the post. They are (in alphabetical order) Brutz English, Paul Kunst, Jeff Mason and Shannon Williamson.

The ESPLOST is designed to raise $13.2 million for the school system.

Early voting ended Friday at noon. At that point, elections supervisor Anita Reid and her staff had served 1003 early voters. They also mailed out 109 absentee ballots of which 72 had been returned at press time Monday.

Polling places are open throughout the county today from 7 a.m. - 7 p.m. Those polling places are District 1: Barnesville library; District 2A: Parker Branch fire station; District 2B: Senior Citizens Center; District 2C: Redbone Community House; District 3: Lamar County Service Center; and District 4: Milner library.

For up to the minute local results tonight, monitor barnesville.com.

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NOTICE:
This story and photo(s) are under copyright. They may not be republished or disseminated in any form or format - including social media - without explicit permission.
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Three people were transported Thursday morning following a head-on collision on Hwy. 36 East at its intersection with Eady Creek Road.

The driver of a Honda had to be cut out of his vehicle by firefighters. He was life flighted to a trauma center from an LZ near Liberty Hill Road.

A second vehicle, a white SUV, was in Eady Creek. Details were sketchy. There were reports of a third vehicle involved.

Traffic was snarled in the area for some time.

The 8:15 a.m. crash was the second in this location in the last week.

UPDATE: GSP has identified the three drivers as:

Anthony Furlow, 28, of Forsyth; Honda Civic; lifeflighted to Macon. Furlow was the at-fault driver.

James Goodman, 37, of Stockbridge; tractor trailer; taken by ambulance to Henry General.

Mackayla Wright, 20, of Yatesville; Volkswagen Passat; taken by ambulance to Macon.

UPDATE 2: Furlow was reported to be in fair condition Friday morning at Navicent in Macon.