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Duluth Police Encountered Hilton

Friday, January 11, 2008

WSB-TV has learned there are three videotapes of an encounter with Duluth police received by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation Friday morning. The encounter happened in July 2006, which gives investigators one more point in their timeline in tracking Gary Hilton’s whereabouts.

“To be that close to someone who is that deadly, it is frightening,” said Bill Taylor. Taylor doesn’t remember seeing Hilton walk past his house or hand out flyers, but knowing Hilton was on his street is bad enough.

“You never know who is going to knock on you door and my mother-in-law does answer the door and she’s pretty helpless so it is scary,” said Taylor.

A neighbor called Duluth police in July 2006 to report Hilton soliciting at the intersection of River Summit Trail and Clearbrooke Way. He was handing out flyers, in which he used his dog Dandy, to advertise for a hardiplank siding business. Police quickly arrived.

“One of the officers thought that Mr. Hilton was extremely uncooperative and would not listen to anything he said. In fact, Mr. Hilton wanted to make a complaint against him,” said Dep. Chief Brian Carney.

WSB-TV Channel 2 obtained part of that complaint from Hilton and he apparently never finished it nor filed it. At least three officers, including a sergeant, were eventually called to the scene.

“He was let go. He was given a verbal warning essentially and told that he wasn’t allowed to solicit in the area and that he’d have to leave the area, which he did,” said Carney.

The entire encounter was captured on three different dashboard cameras, complete with sound from Hilton. The GBI asked Duluth police not to release the tapes to Channel 2.

“The GBI has asked to see those tapes and we have copied them. We kept the masters and sent them to GBI,” said Carney.

The GBI also asked Channel 2 to send them copies of the flyers and the partial complaint letter, which we did. Hilton referred to delivering leaflets as his job, which means he was likely in many north Georgia neighborhoods over the years.

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