More questions have been raised after a north Ga. firefighter was arrested and charged in connection to the tragic killings of twin brothers in Georgia. According to reports, the firefighter was fired on March 14 after he allegedly violated department protocol, Towns County Commissioner Cliff Bradshaw told 11Alive.
As The Root previously reported, Qaadir and Naazir Lewis, 19, were found dead just hours after they were expected to fly to Boston to visit friends on Saturday (March 8). Their plane tickets were reportedly still in their respective wallets found at the scene of the crime. Hikers discovered their bodies at the top of Bell Mountain, near the Georgia-North Carolina border, dozens of miles from where family say the brothers were living.
“How did they end up out in the mountains?” their uncle said to 11 Alive. “They don’t hike out there, they’ve never been out there. They don’t know anything about Hiawassee, Georgia. They never even heard of Bell Mountain, so how did they end up right there?”
Although police suspect the brothers died in a murder-suicide by gunshot wound, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) has confirmed the arrest of former Towns County volunteer firefighter Scott Kerlin, 42, in connection to the case. Kerlin has not been charged directly in the deaths of the brothers. But he was hit with misdemeanor obstruction for allegedly snapping photos of the twins’ dead bodies and leaking them to the public, according to the GBI.
The GBI’s medical examiner has not shared the completed autopsy reports to the public yet. According to a spokesperson, additional forensic tests are also still pending. The family, however, continues to dispute the murder-suicide ruling, saying the twins would never hurt each other.
Their aunt, Yasmine Brawner, said “They wouldn’t do anything like this. To say they did this to each other? No. Something happened in those mountains, and we want answers.” In the meantime, their family has set up a GoFundMe in support of organizing a memorial for the two. So far, more than $34,000 has been raised.