By Joe Johnson
A convicted street gang member on probation in connection with a shooting five years ago was arrested early Monday, as he reportedly was walking home from a block party carrying a bag of various types of drugs.
According to an Athens-Clarke County police report, an officer was patrolling the Gaines School Road area at about 3 a.m. when he saw 23-year-old Taveon Rashawn Stevens walking on a sidewalk near Springtree Road.
According to Clarke Couty Superior Court records, Stevens was convicted in September 2017 on six counts of criminal street gang activity in connection with a shooting incident at Rolling Ridge Apartments. The member of the Bloods street gang was sentenced to four years in confinement and 16 years on probation.
As the officer drove closer to him Monday morning, Stevens reportedly turned around, left the sidewalk and approached the officer.
The officer asked, “What’s going on?” to which Stevens replied he had been at a Fourth of July block party at the Athens Gardens apartment complex and was walking home because he could not get a ride.
“I then told him. ‘OK, I’ll get your name and we will be done,” the officer wrote in his report.
After getting Steven’s name, the officer reported that he told the young man to wait while he returned to his patrol car, but Stevens took off running before the officer could even open the vehicle’s door.
The officer jumped into his car and chased after on Gaines School Road, then ran after Stevens when the suspect ran behind a house, according to the report.
The officer caught up to Stevens after the suspect got caught up in some brush while attempting to get back to Gaines School Road through a wooded area, according to the police report.
As the officer approached him, Stevens reportedly said, “I got weed.”
During an initial search at the scene, Stevens was said to possess a quantity of marijuana and methamphetamine.
Ather transporting Stevens to the county jail, a search of a book bag he had been carrying yielded a small Gucci pouch that contained oxycodone, hydrocodone and carisoprodol pills, according to the report.
The various types of drugs, along with small plastic bags commonly used for packaging drugs for resale, led the officer to believe that Stevens had been selling drugs at the block party, according to the police report.
Stevens was charged with two counts of possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance and one count each of possession of drug-related objects, obstruction of a law enforcement officer, violation of bond, and violation of probation.
Stven was arrested in May 2020 on drug and firearms charges and was released two months later on a $20,000 good security bond, with the conditions he remain under house arrest and wear an ankle monitor, according to court records.
As of Wednesday, Stevens was being detained at the county without bail being set for the bond and probation violations.