I had to drive to Atlanta Monday morning, and I got a nasty surprise when I tried to leave our community by the main entrance.
The road heading both in and out of Sun City Peachtree was blocked, with yellow crime scene tape stretched across the road. So I had to reverse course and leave by the construction entrance.
When I returned about three hours later, the road was still blocked and the tape was still up. The guardhouse was covered with a huge blue tarp and it was impossible to see anything behind it. Jumping to conclusions as usual, I thought maybe some sort of explosion had happened, or being in Georgia, I thought maybe that someone had shot up the building.
I went by the community center and asked the woman at the desk what had happened. All she apparently knew was that it was “some sort of car accident,” so I figured there was either some sort of mechanical failure involved or possibly alcohol.
I found out later that when the vehicle hit the guardhouse, at about 2 a.m. Monday, the security guard on duty inside had been killed. All of a sudden it had become an “Oh my God” type of situation.
According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, a 41-year-old man who was coming to Sun City to visit his father lost control of his car and slammed into the front of the building. The 60-year-old security guard sitting inside the small building was hit by the vehicle and killed.
The guard’s name was Ebenezer Sowunmi, and my second thought about the tragedy was sort of a weird one.
There’s a shock.
Seriously, I found myself wondering if the last person in the world named Ebenezer had just died.
Actually, that’s not that unreasonable a thought.
The man who lost control of his vehicle left it there and walked to his father’s house inside Sun City. When he told his father what had happened, his father took him back to the entrance, assessed the scene and called the police.
The police came, arrested the man and took him to the jail in Griffin. He was charged with driving under the influence, vehicular homicide and failure to maintain his lane.
Failure to what?
Maintain his lane. If that seems like a trivial violation next to the first two, well …
In general, being a security guard here is about as quiet a job as you could imagine, especially during the overnight shift. Pretty much all the guard does is open the gate for visitors.
Certainly not the type of job where dying is more than a very remote possibility.
These days, I guess you never can tell.