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COMER, Ga. -- A manhunt began in Comer Saturday soon after a policeman stopped a vehicle with two men, a woman, a pit bulldog and a Python snake.
One passenger, Thomas Neal Evans, 44, jumped out of the SUV and fled into the woods, where he evaded a manhunt using tracking hounds brought in from a state prison in Alto.
“He’s like a rabbit. He runs hard and fast,” Comer Police Chief Dennis Bell said Monday.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation has been called in to assist Waynesboro police after an apparent homicide on Tucker Avenue.
According to a GBI news release, Waynesboro police responded shortly after 7 a.m. Monday to a residence int he 700 block of Tucker Avenue and found the body of Paul Golden III, 35, who had been shot.
The GBI crime lab near Atlanta is conducting an autopsy and authorities are asking anyone with information to contact the Waynesboro Police at (706) 554-8029 or the GBI at (706) 595-2575.

GAINESVILLE, Ga. — Three children have been killed and four people injured in a two-vehicle wreck in Hall County.

Local news outlets report the Georgia State Patrol says the crash happened Saturday morning.

Authorities say the children, ages four, nine and 16, who were all from Gainesville, died when the SUV they were riding in collided with a pickup truck.
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Authorities are investigating the shooting death of a 73-year-old man found late Monday in North Augusta.
According to Aiken County Coroner Tim Carlton, a passerby found J.C. Mims of H and H Street shot about 10:45 p.m.
He was pronounced dead about 11:30 p.m. in an Augusta hospital.
An autopsy is scheduled today in this ongoing investigation by the coroner's office and sheriff's office, Carlton said.

 
Bank and city officials might have forgotten Augusta’s Minority Link Deposit program, but Augusta Commission member Marion Williams has not.
The program saw millions of dollars deposited into two area banks – now State Bank and Trust and Georgia Bank and Trust – at lower interest rates, as an incentive for them to loan money to small and minority-owned businesses.
Fifteen years later, the funds sit largely untouched, and city and bank officials say they’re unfamiliar with the program.

A woman was briefly trapped insider her vehicle Monday following a collision near Owens Road and Ashton Woods in Martinez.
According to Columbia County Capt. Butch Askew, the victim was removed and a wrecker was sent to the scene to clear the accident.

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One Augusta commissioner is looking to update the profiles of the city’s many boards, authorities and commissions.
Commissioner Sean Frantom wants to discuss having all board members appointed by commission consensus - that is, not by individual commissioners - update their talent bank questionnaires on file with the city.
“They haven’t been reviewed in years and many appointments are in a holdover status,” Frantom said.

Richmond County dispatchers say at least two lanes have been blocked on Peach Orchard Road south of Pepper Ridge Drive by a tractor-trailer wreck.
 According to dispatch logs, there is an accident with an 18 wheeler on Hwy 25 at Tidewater Hill, but there is no fire or leaking.
However, fire trucks are on the way to Windsor Spring at the Hwy25/I-520 juncture to handle a truck leaking diesel.
There is no indication of a fire, officials say.

MACON, Ga. — A 17-year-old boy has drowned at Amerson River Park in Macon.

The Bibb County Sheriff’s Office tells media outlets in a statement that Marcos Mendez Perez died Sunday.

Deputies say someone reported shortly before 6 p.m. that Perez had been on a float near one of the picnic areas and slipped off. He went under water and never resurfaced.

Officials say Perez had been at the park with family and friends.

The westbound exit ramps of Bobby Jones Expressway (I-520) were blocked this morning by an 18-wheeler that was on fire.
A second vehicle fire, unrelated but on nearby Wheeler Road, was also hampering morning commuters, dispatchers said.
According to a statement from the Richmond County sheriff’s office, deputies and firefighters are on the scene and the ramp is expected to be blocked for an extended period of time.