A Georgia firefighter was fired and arrested for allegedly taking photos of the gruesome scene where twin 19-year-old brothers were found dead on top of a mountain and sharing them publically.
Scott Kerlin, a volunteer firefighter in Towns County, is accused of interfering in the investigation regarding the deaths of Lawrenceville brothers Qaadir and Naazir Lewis on March 8.
The 42-year-old shutterbug allegedly shared the photos of the Lewis brothers’ death scene to the public, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation announced Tuesday.
Mystery surrounding the location of the Lewis brothers first arose when they missed their 7 a.m. flight out of Atlanta on March 7.
Their bodies were discovered by a hiker around 11 a.m. the next day near the North Carolina border, approximately 117 miles northeast of the airport.
The twins, from the Atlanta suburb of Lawrenceville, died from a suspected murder-suicide, according to the GBI’s preliminary investigation.
Officials did not disclose who the gunman was in the shooting.
They were supposed to be in Boston visiting friends at the time of their deaths.
Family members say their airplane tickets were found in their wallets at the scene.
Autopsies were completed but the medical examiner is awaiting additional forensic tests before releasing the results.
Kerlin, of Hiawassee, was charged with misdemeanor obstruction.
He was also relieved of his duties for violating department protocol, 11Alive.com reported, citing a Towns County spokesperson.
He later bonded out of jail, according to the outlet.
Officials did not release any additional details in the case.
Grieving relatives had trouble accepting the murder-suicide cause of death, claiming the brothers had a “huge support system” if they were having problems.
“We’re just trying to figure out what happened. We’re trying put pieces together to understand. How did they end out in the mountains? They don’t hike out there. They have never been out there,” the brothers’ aunt, Samira Brawner, told WSBTV.
The twins’ uncle, Rahim Brawner, shared a similar sentiment, as he had never heard of the brothers being physically abusive to each other.
“I can’t imagine them hurting each other because I’ve never even seen them get into a fist fight before,” their uncle said. “Murder-suicide? I just believe that they were extremely incapable of that.”
