By Nicole Burns
(Buford, Ga.) — Gwinnett County Police officers responded to a suspicious activity call in the 300 block of South St. in Buford.
A female homeowner told officers that two young males knocked on her front door, and because she did not know them, she did not answer. The homeowner overheard the youngest male say, “It looks like they are loaded.” The older male responded, “It does not look like anyone is home.” The two then went to the back of the house and began looking through the windows.
The homeowner told her husband about the suspicious activity and he went downstairs to the back of the house. He observed the two suspects at a back window and said they were looking inside as if they were about to try to open the window. The husband then opened the door and confronted them. The suspects then ran back around the front of the house towards the road. The husband did not give chase. He went inside and advised his wife to call 911.
The homeowner described the first suspect as being “a taller black male around 18 years old” with short black hair, and the second suspect estimated around nine years old and carrying a black backpack. She could not recall what they were wearing. She also observed two black females, also juveniles, standing across the street, and when the two male suspects ran, the females followed.
Officers located the four juveniles at South St. and Smokey Rd. near Tannery Row. When an officer asked why the oldest male was at the residence off of South St., he told the officer that he thought a friend of his lived there. The younger male suspect told the officer that the other suspect was his cousin and that he had told him that a friend lived at the house. When questioned, the two females told officers that the two males were their cousins.
Three neighborhood residents told the Voice that they witnessed suspects matching those in the South St. incident knocking on the front door of a house in the 400 block of West Park St. just before the South St. incident. The suspects, one of whom was reportedly carrying a baseball bat, then went to the back of the West Park St. home and proceeded through the woods to South St.
One of the juveniles matched the description of a suspect wanted in connection with a nearby burglary. Detectives requested that two of the juveniles be escorted to the North Precinct for questioning in relation to the burglary. The two males were arrested, handcuffed, and charged with criminal trespassing while the two females were free to go.
With their legal guardians present, the two male suspects were questioned by detectives and were then released into the care of the guardians. All four juveniles were determined to be under the age of 18.
