Gwinnett County

Arrest made in death of man found at Gwinnett County mall

GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — A man was found dead Wednesday in the parking lot of a Gwinnett County mall, and the investigation has been turned over to the GBI.

Authorities identified the victim as 62-year-old Kanakkumar Yvas, of Lilburn.

Channel 2 Action News learned Norcross PD arrested 55-year-old Nooruddin Merchant, of Snellville, Wednesday afternoon at a business in Atlanta.
 

A Norcross police officer who was dispatched to the scene on a “person down” call found the man just before 1:10 a.m. at Global Mall, which is in the 5600 block of Jimmy Carter Boulevard, Sgt. Donald Eric Butynski said.

TRENDING STORIES:

Thomas was told that there were no events being held late Tuesday night at the mall, which caters to the Indian and Pakistani communities.

Very little evidence of the overnight death was visible as Global Mall employee Zabby came into work.

"That was horrible what happened last night," he said. "I have not seen anyone talking in the parking lot or anything."

A manager at the Hampton Inn next door would not comment if his employee's saw anything overnight or not. Thomas learned the mall itself closed at 11 p.m. on Tuesday. It's unclear what, if anything, the building security cameras recorded.

Zabby told Thomas he wishes there was more security in the area.

"It's always good to always have some type of guards active and some type of security would be sufficient," he said.