Sandy Springs Takes Over Internal Affairs Investigation of Alpharetta Officers

UPDATED 4:55 P.M., Oct. 26: The Georgia Bureau of Investigation has taken over the investigation into an incident at on Oct. 15 in which a child reportedly was shaken off a swing by an adult male.

No charges have been filed against the man by the child's mother as of Oct. 25, 10 days after the incident. The Roswell woman, Christole Abdelmaseh, has filed a formal complaint against the two officers who responded to the original 911 call.

Keith Sanders, deputy director of the , made the call to bring the GBI into the case, according to James Drinkard, the assistant city administrator. Too many questions were being raised, he said.

"We need somebody from outside to take a look at this so that it's impartial in every way and give the public a level of comfort it is being handled without any undue influence," Drinkard said this afternoon.

Normally the city would have completed the investigation into the incident and then investigated the complaint against the officers. However, instead the GBI will handle the case.

John Bankhead of the GBI said the agency's investigation into the incident is expected to take a few weeks. The results of that investigation will be forwarded to the Fulton County District Attorney for review. The DA will make whatever decision he feels necessary in the case based on the investigation, Bankhead said.

Previous posted and published reports were incorrect, he said. The GBI will not be involved in the internal affairs complaint against the officers.

Sandy Springs agreed today, Oct. 26, to take over the investigation into the complaint against the officers at the request of Gary George, Alpharetta's Public Safety director.

According to a statement released to the media today, Oct. 25, Alpharetta police officers responded to a 911 call at 6:01 p.m.  on Oct. 15 from the Wacky World playground area of Wills Park. The caller reported that an adult male had physically removed her 4-year-old child from a swing, which caused the child to strike the ground. She told the officers who arrived on the scene that the man lifted the swing and shook it, causing her child to fall to the ground.

According to an event log from the Public Safety Department, Officer Matt Burger met with the mother, who told her a man in a yellow shirt jerked her daughter out of the swing, putting his daughter in it.

"I met with the man in the yellow shirt and he said he did take [the woman's] daughter out of the swing. He said that him and his granddaughters had been waiting in line when [her] daughter cut the line. He said he just picked her out of the swing, set her down and told her there was a line to wait in," Burger's note said.

Since that date, the incident had been under an investigation by an Alpharetta detective, Drinkard said.

Five days later, on Oct. 20, the mother filed the formal complaint against the responding officers–Matt Burger and Chris Massey–alleging they failed to interview witnesses at the scene and did not properly handle the situation.

Drinkard said as this is now under the control and authority of the GBI, all further inquiries will be referred to that agency and the city will have no further comment.

Patch has released the name of the woman making the complaint against the officers because she has consented to interviews with an Atlanta TV station.

No charges or complaints have been filed against the man in the playground incident, so he has not been named on Patch.