Mountain-bike-riding suspect told woman, ‘Stop the hate’, flags recovered from burn barrel —
A Dec. 14 report by a woman who said she attempted to stop a man from stealing Confederate flags from the Hopewell Cemetery in Tyrone is under investigation.
Tyrone Police Department spokesman Philip Nelson said the woman contacted police, saying she witnessed a white male removing Confederate flags from grave sites at the old cemetery located behind Town Hall on Senoia Road.
The woman told officers she told him to stop, with the man replying, “Stop the hate,” and jumping on a black mountain-style bike. The woman said the man exited the cemetery property and dumped the flags behind adjacent buildings just south of the cemetery, Nelson said.
The man was described as a while male, in his late 20s or early 30s, clean-shaven with a fair complexion and strawberry blond hair.
Nelson said the flags were recovered undamaged from a burn barrel behind the adjacent businesses.
The thefts are being investigated, Nelson said.
Nelson added that theft of Confederate flags from gravesites occurs occasionally.
