by Anisah Muhammad
Staff Writer @MuhammadAnisah
ATLANTA—A Black Georgia family is still seeking answers after hikers found twin brothers Qaadir Malik Lewis and Naazir Rahim Lewis, 19, dead on top of Bell Mountain in Hiawassee, Georgia. The investigation is still ongoing and so far there are more questions than answers about what happened to the young men.
According to the available information known so far, below is a short timeline of locations and events.
- The brothers lived in Lawrenceville, Gwinnett County, Georgia, according to a news release by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI). Lawrenceville is about 32 miles northeast of downtown Atlanta.
- March 6: The twins were at their sister’s house in Chamblee, Ga., before heading back to their home in Lawrenceville, where they lived with their father and stepmom, according to the family’s interview with 11Alive, an Atlanta-based NBC affiliate.
- March 7, 7:00 a.m.: The twins had a flight to Boston, according to the 11Alive interview.
- March 8, around 11 a.m.: Qaadir and Naazir were found fatally shot on top of the mountain, according to the GBI’s news release. Their car was found parked at the mountain, according to the family’s interview.
- Bell Mountain in Towns County, Ga., is about 117 miles from Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.
- Bell Mountain is about 87 miles away from Lawrenceville.
The family held a private funeral for the twins on March 28 at Southern Cremations and Funerals in Fairburn, Ga. The twins would have turned 20 on April 5. Qaadir and Naazir are survived by their parents, 10 siblings, grandfather, aunts, uncles, cousins and friends. They graduated high school two years ago and were college students.
Naazir was attending Gwinnett Technical College’s Automotive Technology Program, and Qaadir was attending the Aviation Institution of Maintenance in Gwinnett County, according to the twins’ obituary. They both had one year of college left and had dreams of owning their own business.
“I think it’s disturbing and unfortunate that two young men that had so much ahead of them, unfortunately, were made ancestors at such a young age. The news that’s been put out by the family is also disturbing because it conflicts with what the original authorities of that community have said,” Edward Paul, president of the NAACP Gwinnett County Branch, said to The Final Call.
The Towns County Sheriff’s Office requested the GBI’s assistance “shortly after the discovery,” according to the GBI’s news release. A preliminary investigation revealed the deaths to be a murder-suicide, but the family has been challenging the ruling.
“My nephews wouldn’t do this! They came from a family of love, and (the) twins wanted so much for their future,” a GoFundMe page organized by the twins’ aunt, Yasmine Brawner, says. “They had dreams of starting their very own clothing line.”
The twins were inseparable and had no history of conflict, the family told 11Alive.
“They’re very protective of each other. They love each other,” their uncle, Rahim Brawner, said to the TV station. “They’re like inseparable. I couldn’t imagine them hurting each other because I’ve never seen them get into a fistfight before.”
The family also shared with 11Alive that the twins’ phones, wallet and plane tickets were found inside their car.
“Some of the main questions, I think, are similar to those the family had: How did they get to where they were at? How did it happen?” Mr. Paul questioned. He has spoken to several family members, who voiced that the twins had never been to that part of Georgia before.
“They don’t do any type of hiking or anything like that. So, for them to be found passed away in that particular part of the state, it’s just very troubling,” he said.
On March 18, the GBI arrested and charged volunteer firefighter Scott Kerlin, 42, of Hiawassee, with misdemeanor obstruction for taking photos of the death scene and sharing them publicly.
The Final Call contacted the GBI for records on the twins’ deaths and received notice that the records are “not available because the reports and/or scientific testing is incomplete.”
The investigation into the deaths is active and ongoing. A GBI medical examiner completed the autopsies, but the official ruling is pending due to additional forensic tests, according to the news release. The bureau’s forensic division expects the reports to be available by or before late July, according to a message by the GBI’s Open Records Unit/Legal Division to The Final Call.
There was some speculation and concern expressed by people weighing in on social media about the area where the twins’ bodies were found.
Of the 13,035 people who live in Towns County, 96.2% are White and 1.2% are Black, according to 2023 data by the U.S. Census Bureau. Hiawassee has a population of 981, which is 94.2% White and 0.4% Black, according to 2020 data by the Census Bureau.
Towns County and Hiawassee were originally inhabited by Cherokee Indians. During the late 1700s and early 1800s, White settlers forcibly removed Native populations all over Georgia, including small Georgia counties and cities like Towns County and Hiawassee.
Tougaloo College, a predominantly Black college in Jackson, Mississippi, compiled an online database of sundown towns and towns that excluded non-White people at night through laws, violence and intimidation tactics. The Final Call ran a story on sundown towns still in existence in 2023.
Towns County is included in Tougaloo’s database. In the past, threats of violence toward Black people kept them excluded from the county, according to the listing.
Two Georgia residents commented on the listing.
“I attended Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School and we had a Black basketball player on our team and threats were made against him when we played in Towns County. That was the first time I heard that Black people shouldn’t be in Towns County after dark,” one resident wrote. “This would have been about 1972 or 1973. There were rumors of threats.”
“When I hiked the Appalachian Trail a few years ago, a fellow hiker from Seattle was in the post office in Hiawassee, GA. The hiker commented to the person there that this was their first time in the South and that they were surprised there were no Black people around.
To paraphrase the mail serviceperson’s response, ‘this is a White county, Black people don’t come here especially at night,’” the other resident wrote. “I personally know that for years, I heard that Black people had better not be caught in Towns County after dark.”
The county’s 18-acre Bell Mountain Park and Historical Site offers an observation deck, a parking area and an erected platform for 360-degree views of the mountain and of Lake Chatuge, according to the county website. The park operates daily from 8:00 a.m. to sunset, at which point a gate on the road closes to prevent vehicular access.
The area is remote and does not have staff, supervision, electricity or cameras, Towns County Attorney Cadman Robb Kiker Jr. said, according to local Atlanta media outlets. The park is 3.6 miles away from downtown Hiawassee.
The Final Call reached out to Atty. Kiker Jr. with questions about where Qaadir and Naazir were found. Below are the questions and his responses:
- Can you describe the area the twins were found in and/or the area of Bell Mountain?
The area is remote/wilderness with a steep road that dead ends into the park. It is an overlook providing a panoramic view of the mountain.
- How far is the area from the populated portions of the city?
Not sure of the mileage but it is a remote area accessed by a steep and winding road. There are some homes on the first section of the road.
- What time does the park close?
The park is open from approximately 8:00 am until end of daylight.
- I understand there is a gate to prevent vehicular entrance outside of operating hours. Could you describe the gate and how it works? Does someone physically lock/unlock it, or is it automatic?
The gate is manually operated and inhibits vehicular traffic. The property could be accessed by foot or perhaps offroad vehicles when the gate is closed.
- Have there been any past incidents of a vehicle driving through outside of operating hours, and what would happen if someone managed to get past the gate outside of operating hours?
The area is unsupervised. There are no utilities or other facilities onsite so no one would be aware of access either when the area is opened or closed. The Towns County Sheriff’s Department maintains a patrol schedule of the county and the road accessing the park would be part of the routine.
I don’t know the schedule, if any, for patrol of the road. The county is rural with many back country areas and all roads may not be covered during a shift based upon other law enforcement obligations.
- If you are able to answer, approximately how many people frequent the park on a daily basis, and if the incident itself happened during operating hours, would someone have been able to witness or hear?
There is no supervision of the area or monitoring equipment. We don’t maintain any records of visitors; it is open access. There are no personnel on site to witness or monitor activities in the area. The location is very secluded on a mountain ridge top at the end of a county road.
More answers needed
“We do have volunteers on our legal redress committee, which will look at some of the information and try to do our own fact-finding with what’s happening,” Mr. Paul said. “Hopefully a thorough investigation will get done, and the family can get some form of (justice) behind this.
“It’s definitely a tragic story, but we will keep it elevated publicly as much as possible until we get some answers,” he added.
The family told 11Alive that the twins’ father can’t speak after suffering a stroke and that they are still working to figure out when the twins were last seen leaving their home in Lawrenceville.
Nelson Harris, brother-in-law of the twins’ father, Tyrese Lewis, posted a Facebook video on March 24, where both men expressed gratitude for the support received.
Though limited in speech, Mr. Lewis voiced his thanks. “I’m very appreciative. Thank you very much,” he said.
The family raised funds in the GoFundMe campaign to cover funeral and memorial expenses.
“We will use the remaining funds to get justice for our nephews Qaadir and Naazir,” Sabriya Brawner wrote in an update on the page. “There are so many unanswered questions about this whole situation and we will not rest until we (find) out what happened to them.”
The Final Call will continue to follow this story as it develops.
