Federal fugitive apprehended

By Glenn Harbison, News-Observer Publisher

A federal fugitive is in custody following a standoff with Fannin County deputies that lasted just over seven hours Tuesday, Feb. 21.

Kyle Andrew Fabiano, 36, remained in the Gilmer County Jail Friday awaiting pickup by U.S. Marshalls.

Deputies were called to 55 Cherrywood Court just east of Blue Ridge off McKinney Road shortly after 3 p.m to “keep the peace.” A third party caller had reported screams and glass breaking at the residence.

When the first deputies arrived, Fabiano refused to come out, locked himself inside and was threatening suicide. He began threatening deputies, and, based on his history, deputies were also concerned he might try to burn the residence.

The sheriff office’s SWAT team was called, and Deputy Jim Burrell and Sergeant Anthony Walden began talking with Fabiano in an attempt to get him to surrender.

Fannin authorities had learned Fabiano had an outstanding bench warrant out of Gilmer County and also a hold placed on him there by the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).

Sheriff Dane Kirby said Fabiano finally surrendered without incident, and deputies cleared the scene shortly after 10 p.m.

Fannin deputies confiscated a semiautomatic pistol and semiautomatic rifle Fabiano had access to when they searched the residence.

After Fabiano was taken into custody, he was transported straight to the Gilmer County Jail. A spokesperson for the Gilmer County Sheriff’s Office confirmed Fabiano was booked into the jail there shortly before midnight.

Both the outstanding bench warrant and federal hold stem from charges originally filed by Ellijay Police Department officers in December 2021.

Ellijay officers had been dispatched to a Payne Ridge Road residence at 10:37 p.m. Dec. 13 in reference to a roommate dispute over firearms, the Ellijay incident report said.

Fabiano had locked himself in a bedroom threatening to shoot, “the next person to knock on my door.”

Officers tried to contact Fabiano by phone with no response and kept the residence under surveillance throughout the night waiting for Fabiano to leave.

Officers watched from a nearby lot as Fabiano entered and left the residence several times, loading items into his car, then returned to the residence and turned off all the lights. With no additional movement after about an hour, the surveillance was called off. It was decided to capture Fabiano the next day when he left for work. Warrants had been issued for terroristic threats and acts, disorderly conduct, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and possession of a firearm during commission of a crime.

Fabiano was arrested the next day at his workplace in Pickens County without incident.

At the same time, a search of the residence uncovered an AR-15 rifle, several ounces of marijuana, ammunition, several smoking devices and other controlled substances, the incident report said.

Fabiano was additionally charged with possession of marijuana sale/deliver/distribute, possession of drug related objects, and two counts of possession of schedule ii drug.

Based on the incident, Ellijay Police Chief Edward Lacey said he met with the U.S. Attorney and other federal authorities to seek prosecution of Fabiano under the Violent repeat offender statutes. Lacey called Fabiano “a perfect textbook case” for seeking the federal charges. The federal authorities agreed.

“We don’t want him in our community,” Lacey said.

A federal grand jury for the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia in Gainesville indicted Fabiano Feb. 7, 2023, for possessing of firearms. That indictment referenced a 2015 conviction in Fannin County for arson in the first degree.

Lacey was notified of the indictment Feb. 13, but learned no one had been monitoring Fabiano as was ordered with his arson conviction in Fannin County.

Ellijay officers began looking for him to get him into the federal system, and a hold was placed on him in connections with the federal indictment. It was those actions that eventually led to Fabiano’s arrest in Fannin County.