Black Hammer Party suspects indicted with added charges by Fayette grand jury

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Augustus C Romain/Gazi Kodzo (L) and Xavier H Rushin arrests.
Augustus C Romain/Gazi Kodzo (L) and Xavier H Rushin arrests.

The Fayette County Grand Jury has added additional charges against the leader of the Black Hammer Party and an associate, both of whom were involved in a July 19 incident at a residence in Fayetteville. The new charges are in addition to the litany of original felony charges the men face.

The two taken into custody were Augustus C. Romain, also known as Gazi Kodzo, the leader of the Black Hammer Party fringe group and 21-year-old Xavier H. “Keeno” Rushin.

Two men were arrested after the July 19 incident at the Woodbyne subdivision on Fayetteville’s north side, where nine people exited the house and a member of the Black Hammer Party was found dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head once police gained entry.

The new charges against Romain stemming from the grand jury indictment on Sept. 12 included five counts of aggravated sodomy and four counts of violation of the Street Gang Terrorism and Prevention Act, according to District Attorney Marie Broder.

Additional charges against Rushin, also stemming from the grand jury indictment on Sept. 12, included four counts of violation of the Street Gang Terrorism and Prevention Act, said Broder.

Broder said the additional charges presented to the grand jury resulted from information obtained from a more extensive investigation.

The original charges from July against Romain against 36-year-old Augustus C. Romain of 220 Selwyn Court in Fayetteville included aggravated sodomy, two counts of conspiracy to commit a felony, two counts of false imprisonment (party to a crime), two counts of kidnapping (party to a crime), two counts of aggravated assault (party to a crime) and two counts of criminal street gang activity.

As for 21-year-old Xavier Rushin, the July charges included obstruction, two counts of criminal street gang activity, two counts of aggravated assault, two counts of kidnapping, two counts of false imprisonment and two counts of conspiracy to commit a felony.

As previously reported by Fayetteville police, “the incident began when Fayette County 911 received a ‘trouble unknown’ call around 7:48 a.m. Tuesday morning from a person whispering that they had been kidnapped by an organization and were being held in the garage of a residence” that was subsequently identified by police as a home at 220 Selwyn Court in the Woodbyne subdivision off White Road.

The caller was unable to provide a location, but dispatchers were able to trace the call and provide police with an approximate location. Once on the scene, police observed a person waving a hand from a garage window, police said.

Nine occupants exited the house when police using a loudspeaker instructed everyone to evacuate. Police later discovered Amonte Ammons, 18, in an upstairs bathroom, dead from an apparent gunshot wound to the head.

2 COMMENTS

  1. Ooo…these “purdy” “Black Hammer Party” boys will meet their matches in in a hot South “Gawja” prison and there experience the true “hammer of the gods”.
    I think they chose the wrong party to join and the wrong county in which to commit their putrid crimes.