Canton Double Homicide: Police, City Leaders Work To Ensure Safety

CANTON, GA -- It's been nearly six years since a high-profile murder has rocked the collective spirit of the city of Canton, forcing its residents, leaders and stakeholders to take a sober look at what's happening in the neighborhoods tucked away from the major thoroughfares known to many in Cherokee County.

That self-reflection is what took place Friday morning during a press conference held at Canton City Hall. Canton Police Chief Mark Mitchell was flanked by City Manager Billy Peppers and Mayor Gene Hobgood, who all sought to reassure the public it's doing everything in their respective powers to provide a meaningful, quality of life for its roughly 24,000 citizens.

Friday's press conference comes in response to the June 25 fatal shooting that killed two men in the area of Crisler Street and a July 11 drive-by shooting in the same area, both of which have resulted in the arrests of suspects in connection to those incidents.

Mitchell, who has been on the job for nearly three years, said the recent spike in violent crimes is a peculiar chain of events for the Cherokee County seat. The double murders, he added, is a sad situation for the families involved, the community, the police department and the city as a whole.

"That's not the norm here in Canton," he said, adding patrol officers and detectives are working hard to make additional arrests in the near future. "We're working hard to make sure that part of our community has a good quality of life."

Officers were dispatched to a shots-fired call around 11:20 p.m. Sunday, June 25 on Crisler Street and arrived to find multiple people afflicted with gunshot wounds. One male was found dead in the grassy area adjacent to Crisler Street, and another male was wounded at a home off Jefferson Circle. Another male found shot inside a vehicle was rushed to the hospital where he was pronounced dead. A third shooting victim was transported to the hospital where he was treated for non-life threatening injuries.

Two men, 25-year-old Tony A. Samples of Ball Ground and 23-year-old Canton resident William Kendrick Randall were killed. The police department notes the shooting was not random, as the individuals involved knew each other. The double homicide also occurred "after a confrontation involving two opposing groups," it added.

On July 13, the Canton Police Department charged Brody Austin Samples, 23, of Ball Ground and Temarlos Marquarous Turner, 22, of Canton two counts of felony murder and two counts of aggravated assault. These two men join Jeremy Ulysses Zellous, 29, who has also been charged with felony murder, aggravated assault, making false statements and tampering with evidence related to the case. Samples is the younger brother of 26-year-old Tony A. Samples, Mitchell previously told Patch.

The drive-by shooting, also taking place on Crisler Street, reported July 11 resulted in the arrests of three people, Bryon Elrod, 31, Brian Miller, 31, and Darron Brown, 27. Along with the June 25 shooting deaths, the police department also said it's working to determine if the shots fired Tuesday evening on Crisler Street are connected to the homicide investigation.

The July 14 press conference was the first public response to a high-profile homicide in the area since the 2011 murder of Jorelys Rivera in the River Ridge at Canton apartment complex. That investigation led to the arrest of a maintenance worker at the complex, and widespread criticism of the Canton Police Department's handling of the search and recovery of Jorelys' body as well as the hunt for a suspect. It also led to the resignation of former Police Chief Jeff Lance.

Six years and two police chiefs later, the Canton Police Department has worked to transform its public image, undertaking various initiatives to establish trust with the citizens it serves. The most well-known of these programs is the Coffee with a Cop series hosted at businesses around the city and its regular meetings with clergy members of city churches. These encounters are regularly documented on its Facebook page.

On the civilian side, Peppers said the city is doing what it can to beautify the area, which he said could be a deterrent to anyone possibly thinking engaging in illegal activity.

"It's always a struggle when you have incidents like this occur in your community because they have an negative impact not only on the families that are involved, (but) the families in the area where incidents like this occur and the community as a whole struggles to come to grips with these type of activities," he added. "We grieve for the families that have lost individuals. We grieve for those family members who now have family members who have been arrested and charged with certain crimes related to that incident."

As the city manager, Peppers said he views his role as a responsibility to figure out what can be done to make an area and residents feel safe again as well as to let the city as a whole know that "this is a community that we all love."

Following the June 25 shooting, Peppers said he met on site with public works staff and police officers to see what could be done immediately to "build value back" and communicate to residents that the city views the neighborhood as one it cherishes.

Peppers stated Burge Park, located at the corner of Burge and Crisler streets, has been the heart of the community for decades, but has not seen the investment that other Canton park facilities have enjoyed. So at the July 6 City Council meeting, Peppers outlined an overview of improvements that Canton plans to undertake, such as installing new playground equipment, replacing fencing and refinishing the basketball court.

"It's unfortunate to me to think about children who might be playing in the park and they look over and see a tree that might have bullets in it," he said. "That's not the childhood that we want anybody to experience."

To that end, city staff went out and began trimming a lot of the shrubbery in the area and taken down some of trees around the park to "open it up." Additionally, in a bid to make residents in the community feel safe, the city also installed security cameras in the park so the police department can keep an eye on what's taking place.

In rolling out improvements and providing additional security, Peppers said he hopes those actions will lead the neighborhood feeling pride in the park as well as the community. Over the next six months, almost all of the streets in the neighborhood are slated to be resurfaced through the city's Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax program.

"We really just want to clean up the area and make sure that those individuals are proud of the place that they call home," he added.

For his part, Mayor Gene Hobgood said the city's growth has led to some "unsavory characters" coming into the area and "quite honestly, our police department is not going to tolerate that." However, Canton remains one of the safest cities in Georgia and has one of the best police departments in the city's history.

"We are going to make sure our community is safe, and we want to make sure that the community knows that this mayor and council will provide our police department with any of the tools necessary to keep our community safe," he said, adding Friday's gathering was about showing the area that city leaders care about its residents and their safety. The ultimate goal, he said, would be to ensure that no one is ever afraid to walk the streets of Canton at night. That, he said, will take the work and a lot of commitment on behalf of the city.

For Pastor Tyrone Gates of Mt. Calvary Baptist Church, the number one priority for the city is to ensure that the area as well as residents and his parishioners feel safe as they go about their routines. The citizens he's talked to, Gates said, have been unnerved by the June 25 events.

"This was a traumatic situation that caught everyone off guard," he said, adding the shooting was an isolated occurrence for the area. He also said he was optimistic about the city and the community's ability to come together and heal from the tragedy. He also said his church and others in the community continue to be open and accessible in working with Chief Mitchell and the department to build a sense of trust.

Sitting quietly in the back of the audience during the press conference was Melissa Hughes, the mother of Tony and Brody Samples. She spoke with media outlets following the conference and through tears, recounted how hard it is to watch her granddaughter walk up to people and mention her father's death to other children.

Hughes also pleaded with anyone to come forward to provide information to help Canton police detectives solve the case.

"The truth has got to come out," she said.

Photo 1: Canton Police Chief Mark Mitchell speaks as City Manager Billy Peppers listens.

Photo 2: Canton Mayor Gene Hobgood speaks as Peppers and Mitchell listen.

Credit: Kristal Dixon