This is a time when an honest mistake might spill someone’s guts into the driveway. Just ask Brandon Carver, the Uber Eats takeaway driver. He said that he went to the wrong house last week and was pointed at him with a shotgun by a homeowner.
Carver’s tragic experience occurred when the residents of the fashionable West Buckhead dead end with a $2 million residence near Westminster School were offered some five-person burgers. Carver is mixed and the owner is white.
There has been an increase in shootings and car thefts in Buckhead this year (although still far below four of the other five police districts in Atlanta). This caused some residents there to organize and support Buckhead to separate from Atlanta and create a new city.
Carver said that his GPS did not locate the house correctly—the address was confusing—so he backed up the driveway of the home he inferred to be the correct address. This is a “contactless” delivery method popular in the COVID-19 era, so he put the bag on the front porch, took a photo of the food, and then sent it to the orderer.
Next, he saw a tall man in his 60s holding a double-barreled shotgun, probably 5 feet away. “Leave my (blank) property,” he growled. Carver said the man was very persistent and yelled.
Carver said he told the man that he was delivering food and pointed to the bag. He said that the man pointed the shotgun at the food, then pointed at him and said, “Take it and take (blank) from here.”
Carver said he retrieved the bag and then tried to show the man his phone and address to let him know that he was indeed a deliveryman. However, he said that the homeowner repeated his order to leave and threatened to shoot him if he did not. He left, accelerating in the driveway while grinding the gears of his 2006 Toyota Corolla.
I called the host, Gregory Kreuer, and within a few minutes I received a call from Noah Pines, a senior lawyer who defended Garrett Rolfe, an Atlanta police officer, who shot and killed Rayshard Brooks outside Wendy’s last year.
Pines later sent me a statement that read: “An unknown person drove Mr. Kroll’s driveway close to his house. A series of violence and crimes occurred in Mr. Kreuer’s neighborhood. This Make him suspect that a stranger drove into his driveway and approached his house.
“Sir. Kreuer retrieved his shotgun and walked out of his house. Mr. Kreuer asked the man why he was on his property. The man did not claim to be a food delivery driver. He replied that he was delivering Kreuer. Mr. Kreuer ordered something. Mr. Kreuer responded that he did not order anything and that the man should leave the property. Mr. Kreuer never pointed a shotgun at that person and never threatened that person.”
Carver disagreed with Kreuer on the last two points, but luckily he was still able to do this. If the event happened late at night, or if Carver had a dispute or sudden action, only one party might be telling the story.
As early as 2014, an older man in Gwinnett County lost his way due to poor GPS information and drove into the man’s lane and shot and killed a young man. He was sentenced to a year of probation and was fined $500. The 70-year-old sailor Philip said that he believed Rodrigo Diaz and his friends were criminals. Instead, they tried to pick up a friend to go skating.
Carver is a fledgling sports journalist, but provides services for Uber Eats and Door Dash to make ends meet. He is the father of a 3-year-old boy who lives in southwest Atlanta with his fiancee. He focused on delivering in North Atlanta because he got better tips.
After the incident, Carver posted what happened on the Nextdoor website of the Paces community, but it was deleted-three different times. The chairman of the neighborhood association is Bill White, who is also a major figure in the separatist movement. Usually, when defending citizens’ “divorce”, he said: “We live in a war zone.” People are taking up arms.
After White posted his story online, he contacted Carver. Carver then searched White’s name on Google and found that he was the leader of the Buckhead Separation Movement.
“He didn’t want such a story to appear, because it would disrupt the big and bad Atlanta narrative, because your residents drew their guns at the deliveryman,” Carver said.
As a black, he understands reality, especially those who work in a very affluent community. This is why he avoids wearing a hoodie at work.
“I’m not someone who looks terrible,” he told me. “But I tried to make these wealthy homeowners not afraid. I wore a master’s hat when I was nearby. I wanted them to think,’He might be a good guy. He likes golf.’”
Carver went to the police station to fill out a report, but said that a lieutenant there kept telling him “all the reasons why nothing would happen.”
“He (Lieutenant) said,’He doesn’t know who you are.’ I thought,’Yes, I am a deliveryman.’”
I called several legal eagles to talk about this: Don Samuel is a well-known defense attorney who wrote a textbook on Georgia law, and Clintluk is a former Fulton County prosecutor Officer, handled approximately 150 murder trials. They have been fighting for decades. NFL superstar Ray Lewis was convicted of a misdemeanor after the felony charge was dropped in the 2000 murder trial. Atlanta lawyer Tex McIver (Tex McIver) He was convicted of deliberately killing his wife in the 2018 murder trial.
Both agreed with the current incident, basically saying that the police lieutenant tried to avoid a potential case that few prosecutors would try.
Rucker said the homeowner “of course can wield” his gun. “Once he knows that he is a deliveryman, he should relax. But legally speaking, he doesn’t have to do this.”
“It is a bit laborious to make any accusations,” he continued. “You have a strange car in your driveway. You didn’t order. This is a black man-it shouldn’t matter, but it does. Unfortunately, we have reached this point of distrust.” (Luck is a black man. )
But is it legal? In Georgia? “It is not wrong to make sure you are not a victim of robbery,” he said.
“You can’t shoot an intruder,” Samuel said. “But you can tell them you want, and swear to them.”
This week I had a brief meeting with Carver during his lunch time so that I could take pictures of him. He left a Chick-fil-A on the crazy high-end Bill Kennedy Avenue in southeast Atlanta. The shopping area is full of immovable cars. This is one of about 20 pickup trucks he makes every day, barely maintaining $120. His son sits in the back seat to help save on babysitting expenses.
This is a difficult and busy way of earning a living. Now, it can carry more than just a hint of danger.
He pointed out that delivery drivers can be seen everywhere, from fashion to food, from pet supplies to office supplies. “It’s 2021!” he said.
I asked Rucker about this environment, where there are so many drivers who are busy delivering deliveries in unfamiliar neighborhoods, and people who are increasingly worried (and armed).
Bill Torpy (Bill Torpy) joined the newspaper in 1990, he wrote for the “Atlanta Constitution” article about the Atlanta subway.
Post time: Aug-04-2021