Say no to guns

Two University students were arrested Monday after they shot pellets from a BB gun into Reed Quad, police said.

Whether they were aiming a squirrels or passers by, we may never know.

Dorm graduate assistant Erin Leah Crews told police that between 8:40 and 9 p.m. someone was shooting a BB gun from a Reed Hall window into Reed Quad, the University police report said.

Ken Yangyang Avila told police that he shot the gun, and the weapon belongs to Jimmy Thai Nguyen, the report said.

University Police arrested Avila and Nguyen and charged them with possession of a weapon on school property.

Georgia law has “zero tolerance” for possession of a weapon on or within 1,000 feet of any school-owned property.

Weapons include nun chucks, oriental darts, tasers, knives with blades more than two inches long, explosives, poison gas and contraptions “designed to propel a missile of any kind.”

Please leave your paintball guns at home.

If convicted of this felony charge, Avila and Nguyen could face up to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

Tough break.

Crews said she could not comment on the incident because of her position at Reed Hall.
Nguyen refused to comment on the incident.

Efforts to reach Avila were unsuccessful Tuesday.

The moral of this story: If you ever get bored, this is what not to do.

- Juanita
jcousins@randb.com

Un-break My Heart

A female University student and her visiting friends were assaulted by her ex-boyfriend early Sunday when the man entered her home and pointed a gun at a friend’s head, police said.

The woman was at her South Milledge Avenue home with three friends when William Earl White of 150 Richmond Way arrived at about 4 a.m.

The woman told The Red & Black Monday that White banged on her front door three times before kicking it in.

She said she knew White was upset that she ended their year-long relationship Sunday morning because he had called her cell phone more than 30 times.

A little sour, eh?

He has a history of becoming violent when angry and drunk, she said.

“I know he has pulled a gun on someone before and has been to anger management classes,” she said.

The woman said White pulled a black hand gun, pushed past her and grabbed a visitor.
“I really thought he was going to kill [my friend],” she said.

White pressed the gun to the back of the visitor’s head and forced the man out of the house, she said. He returned inside and yelled at the woman until another friend called the police and drove away in a four-door white car.

Police found White at his Richmond Way home and arrested him. White is being charged with criminal trespass of property, burglary, aggravated assault and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

No one was injured Sunday.

White was still in jail Monday afternoon and will have a second bail hearing Wednesday morning, the woman said.

Police estimate $250 in damages done to the woman’s door and molding around the frame.

The moral of this story: Be careful who you date. Perhaps do a background check. And above all, just don’t date the locs.

- Juanita
jcousins@randb.com

It’s my party. I can fight if I want to.

University student Maxwell Warren Watson celebrated his 21st birthday Saturday while half naked, by giving it to his friend, police said.

Literally.

University student Andrew Gorman told Athens-Clarke County Police that he and three friends were riding in a taxi to Gumby’s Pizza on Baxter Street when Watson punched Gorman’s nose and climbed over the seat toward him, the police report said.

Gorman held Watson down so that he could not throw any more punches. When the driver dropped the men off at Gumby’s, Watson ran away.

Two University police located Watson no wearing a shirt at Church and Peabody Streets and brought him back to Gumby’s.

Watson told police he was celebrating his 21st birthday and unaware of the altercation in the taxi cab.

ACC Police arrested Watson and charged him with simple battery and public intoxication at about 2:30 a.m.