By Joe Johnson
A man who last month fell through the ceiling of an Athens fast food restaurant has been arrested on criminal charges.
Marvin Douglas Yearby, 40, of Pinewood North Estates, had initially been transported to the hospital after the incident. On Thursday he was booked into the county jail on charges of second-degree arson and criminal damage to property.
According to a police incident report, officers responded the night of March 19 to Popeye’s on Prince Avenue when the manager reported that the bathroom ceiling had collapsed and it sounded as though someone was on the roof.
An officer located Yearby in the attic where was smoke accumulating, but the man only mumbled when the officer tried speaking with him, according to the report. A firefighter took a photograph of him using a lighter to burn pieces of wood.
As responders tried convincing Yearby to climb down a ladder that had been set up for him, he walked around and caused ceiling damage that resulted in several light fixtures falling behind the counter area and eventually the ceiling gave way and Yearby crashed onto the restaurant floor, police said.
National EMS personnel immediately sedated Yearby and tended to any injuries he had before transporting him to the hospital.
What he did was extremely racist!
Got to have that Popeyes. Or he just wanted to be sedated.
Yearby is almost certainly a member of a growing fraternity of predators looking at Athens as a weak prey, subject to their criminal desires. Let's have a guess if Yearby has been arrested before. Maybe more than once? Is it likely he was on probation? Likely, yes. I've got a plan for these predators but no one will listen. When I'm King......