State investigators arrested a Cornelia man in connection with a weekend shooting that sent one man to the hospital. The GBI charged 19-year-old Giovanni Lara Ramirez with one count of aggravated assault.
Ramirez is accused of shooting 20-year-old Elias Jimenez during a house party at 217 Morning Glory Drive in Mt. Airy before dawn on Sunday.
A 911 caller reported the incident to authorities around 3:10 a.m. on October 2. A man drove Jimenez to the hospital where a Habersham County Sheriff’s deputy met them, the sheriff’s office incident report states. The deputy secured the vehicle and the sheriff’s office asked the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to assist with the investigation.
Officials have not released a motive for the shooting. The case remains under investigation.
The decision to ask the GBI to investigate this shooting comes just days after the county’s chief deputy defended his decision not to turn over a high-profile murder investigation to state investigators. Murray Kogod said in a press conference on Friday that the sheriff’s office is a “full service law enforcement agency,” in explaining why the GBI was not called in to lead the Debbie Collier murder case.
