Someone shared quite a bit with me last night via e-mail but I haven't read it all yet. It was their request that I post it here because in THEIR words folks are being scammed due to "less than truthful" info being circulated. I will share this info as I review it if I think it is credible. Folks can decide for themselves what is true and what isn't.
Cindy
Hart County shooting leads to big marijuana bust near Bowersville : Northeast Georgia : Anderson Independent-Mail
Hart County shooting leads to big marijuana bust near Bowersville
By Crystal Boyles
Originally published 04:38 p.m., May 10, 2008
A call of a shooting that came into the Hart County Sheriff’s Office led deputies to a large marijuana-growing operation located in a historic home in downtown Bowersville.
The home is a stone’s-throw behind the Bowersville Post Office.
Deputies received the call at 12:30 a.m. Saturday, and found Michael Garrow sitting on the side of the road, unable to drive because he had been shot. When questioned, he sent deputies to the home, and also mentioned there was marijuana there, Sheriff Mike Cleveland said.
Garrow was transported to Hart County Hospital, and his injuries are not life-threatening, the sheriff said.
After obtaining a search warrant for the home — owned by 38-year-old Damon Gregory — in relation to the shooting, deputies found an extensive marijuana-growing lab in one of the rooms.
“It was the biggest thing I’ve ever seen,” Sheriff Cleveland said. “There were a total of six huge sodium bulbs. … Each one of those bulbs were mounted, and each had an individual line to (an electrical) booster the size of a shoe box.”
Two-inch thick Styrofoam insulation was glued or nailed to the walls, and covered with sheets of reflective material that looks like chrome, he said.
“The crop had just been harvested, and our informants tell us (Gregory) probably got between $30,000 and $40,000.”
Grow beds were prepared to take another batch of between 160 and 200 plants, Sheriff Cleveland said.
Gregory will be charged with one count each of manufacturing marijuana and aggravated assault, Sheriff Cleveland said.
Officials say Gregory fled Saturday, and although they're not sure where they know he has ties to Atlanta and North Carolina. Anyone with any information on Gregory's whereabouts is asked to call the Sheriff's Office at (706) 376-3114.
Sheriff’s deputies said Garrow lived with Gregory until early last week, when the two had a fistfight and a falling out. Apparently the two resolved their differences and were hanging out Friday night, but something set them off again, the sheriff said.
Garrow was standing on the outside of an outside door, and was shot once by a shotgun from the inside of the home, authorities said.
“The door was closed,” Cleveland said. “We have a nice hole about the size of a silver dollar going through the door.”
Shotgun shells are made up of smaller pellets and Garrow had about 10 rounds in him — seven in the stomach and three in the arm, Cleveland said.
“Garrow left here, got in his truck, had his 15-year-old son with him, and he collapsed. A passerby called us,” Sheriff Cleveland said. “(Garrow) didn’t tell me there was a grow lab (in the house). He just said there was marijuana.”
Garrow’s son was not injured, though was shaken up after the incident, the sheriff said. His name is not being released because he is a minor.
Currently deputies are loading all the equipment — including humidifiers, timers and watering systems — into a box truck, he said. Gregory will be charged with one count each of manufacturing marijuana and aggravated assault, Sheriff Cleveland said.
Garrow was transported to Hart County Hospital, and his injuries are not life threatening, the Sheriff said.
