This week can be described in one way: spooktacular. Students got together and celebrated Halloween with their friends and families, the cross country team competed in the state meet, and the volleyball team competed in its final four match. This jam-packed week was also filled with countless news stories. With a house on fire, a cyber attack, and a wildfire, The Prowler has the stories. 

Local home goes up in flames (10/28)

The week began with a rough start on Sunday morning when a home in Sutton’s Cove went ablaze. The home is located in Kedron Village near Kedron Shopping Center in north Peachtree City.

The fire occurred early in the morning and John Dunlap of the Peachtree City Fire Department was alerted to the incident at 5:49 a.m. Fortunately no injuries occurred.

The house was damaged significant causing the roof and upstairs area to collapse onto the garage. The owners of the home were out of town, thus the cause of the fire is unknown. The fire department is still investigating.

South African city under cyber attack (10/29)

A cyber attack on the city of Johannesburg, South Africa, left city officials and residents terrified to use the internet. A group of hackers gained control of the city’s computer system and left them with a horrifying ultimatum. 

This group of hackers said they need four bitcoins (electric currency), which is equivalent to about $36,000, or they would continue on their cyber attack. These hackers also harassed many citizens through the internet requesting payment. 

The city is still on a complete cyber lockdown, the government said only to use real money and avoid credit card or bitcoin transactions. This lockdown also includes the shutdown of most computer systems until the problem is resolved. The hackers have not been located yet, but without anything to hack they have nothing to do. 

Presidential library in jeopardy due to wildfire (10/30)

After the recent outbreak of California wildfires, 30,000 people were evacuated from their homes and three firefighters hospitalized from the Easy Fire in Simi Valley. It hasn’t rained for 125 days in Simi Valley and the 40 mph winds caused this massive force of destruction. 

The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library was in severe danger from this fire and was barely saved since the fire came within 50 feet of the building. The building is completely surrounded with grounds that could easily burst into flames. 

This fire was within 50 miles of Los Angeles so at this rate even more families will have to be evacuated from their homes. Simi Valley is also home to many horse owners who had to evacuate with their pets. 

House moves forward to impeach Trump (10/31)

The House of Representatives voted today to move forward with the impeachment inquiry of President Trump. The house voted 232 to 196 to move forward with the investigation. This vote will start the process of seeing whether the president tried to interfere in the 2020 presidential election.

The Speaker of the House normally does not preside the vote, but speaker Nancy Pelosi did preside. She also voted for a resolution, which is normally not used unless they want to draw attention to a specific issue. Pelosi called it a “sad day” because “nobody comes to Congress to impeach a president.”

The vote had the House split and yet some decided not to vote. Four house members did not vote, including a Georgia member. All Republican members did not vote to move forward, but two Democratic members also voted not to move forward. The House Democrats would like to have open hearings regarding the impeachment, but for now they remain behind closed doors.

Officer found guilty for killing an unarmed naked veteran (11/1)

Robert Olsen, a former Decatur police officer, will serve prison time for shooting an unarmed naked veteran. Anthony Hill, only 26-years-old at the time, was fatally wounded by the shot and died that day.

In March of 2015, Olsen received a call regarding a naked black man making a scene in a local apartment complex. However, he did not know that Hill was an unarmed United States Airforce veteran struggling with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and bipolar disorder. Today the jurors will decide how long Olsen will be locked up.

Olsen has been convicted of making a false statement, aggravated assault, and violating his oath of office twice. The former officer will be put behind bars for a minimum of 25 years due to aggravated assault charges and other charges.