While out on routine patrol, Eatonton Police Department Sgt. Eli James saw a lower window busted out of the City Annex Building. When asked, the dispatcher told Sgt. James that no one on a previous shift had reported the broken window.
James reportedly saw a steel bar and a rock laying on the porch near the broken window. Believing the items were used to break the window, the items were taken into evidence. He noted in his report that the doors to the building were secured and had not been opened.
Prior to the Washington Avenue facility becoming the City Annex building, it housed the school system’s elementary school until this year. Although the broken glass was discovered on Sept. 8, before Eatonton City Hall offices had officially moved in, security cameras were already in operation. So, Eatonton Police Chief Howell Cardwell contacted the security system company, who provided him the video of the night of Sept. 7 and morning of Sept. 8.
In his incident report, Cardwell described seeing a man wearing a green shirt, shorts and tennis shoes walking the hallways of the building, as well as walking around the former school gymnasium. Chief Cardwell recognized the man as Justin Harris, so he went to Harris’s home.
“When I pulled up in my vehicle, …Mr. Harris walked out on the driveway and told me he went into the school to find his old classroom,” Cardwell wrote in his report.
Harris told Cardwell he used the bar and rock to get into the school.
“He stated to me that he went into the school to try and find his old fifth grade classroom,” Cardwell said. “He stated several times that he left the rock and the rod on the steps where he entered the building. Mr. Harris said he didn’t take anything from the school.”
Justin Nathaniel Harris, 26, of Eatonton, is facing charges that include felony burglary in the second degree, and felony criminal damage to property, second degree. He was booked into Putnam County jail Sept. 8 and released on $10,000 property bond.