Lawrenceville business whose trucks were burned says it’s not pouring concrete foundation for ‘Cop City’

LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - A Lawrenceville concrete company whose trucks caught on fire this week said they were not hired to pour the concrete foundation for the future Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, disputing a claim made by an anonymous group who said it set the fires.

In an anonymous post sent to Scenes From The Atlanta Forest, an online forum, a group claimed responsibility for setting six concrete trucks on fire at Ernst Concrete. The group said it set the fires Monday night.

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The blog post claims the concrete company was pouring the foundation for the future training center site, called “Cop City” by critics, but on Thursday the company said it wasn’t.

“Ernst Concrete would like to correct some of the inaccurate information that is being circulated in the media,” the company said in a statement. “Ernst Concrete is not the concrete foundation company for the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center. At the request of one of Ernst Concrete’s local customers, Ernst Concrete supplied two loads of concrete for the roadway surrounding the project.”

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Gwinnett County officials said firefighters came to the business shortly after 2:30 a.m. Tuesday, where multiple work vehicles were on fire. No injuries were reported.

Gwinnett County fire officials on Wednesday said they believe it was an arson incident.

In a statement Wednesday, the Gwinnett County Fire Department said it was aware of the blog post from the group claiming responsibility for the fires and that the investigation is still underway.

“We are investigating all suspects in this matter,” the statement said.

Kamau Franklin, one of the organizers for the “Stop Cop City” movement, told Atlanta News First that the protesters who marched on Monday in DeKalb County did not engage in arson at the concrete site.

However, Franklin also said, “We think civil disobedience is part of the struggle and we are not here to condemn anybody’s actions.”

Atlanta Police said Wednesday the agency is “actively monitoring the incident in Gwinnett County and working closely with the investigating agencies.”

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