A Georgia mayor was charged with burglary and trespassing on Saturday, clearing the way for him to be temporarily replaced by a council member who was among four others who filed a lawsuit against him earlier this year.
Khalid Kamau, the mayor of the city of South Fulton, was charged with breaking and entering and first degree robbery. He was released the same day on $11,000 in bond.
The police department sent a request for more details to the city’s director of public affairs, who declined to provide details to NBC News on Sunday, citing an “ongoing investigation.”
“The City of South Fulton is committed to upholding the law and ensuring that all people, regardless of position, are subject to the same fair and equal treatment,” said Jacqueline Howell, the city’s acting director of public affairs.
NBC News made an inquiry Sunday to the city’s public records office for the incident report.
Kamau was also ordered to undergo a mental health evaluation, according to WXIA, an NBC affiliate.
An email from NBC News to the official email address for the city of Kamau and its chief of staff was not immediately returned Sunday. published in Facebook Saturday I was “fine” and “free”.
“God is still using me. Stay tuned,” he wrote.
Kamau also shared a biblical version about “those who are persecuted for the sake of justice.”
City Councilwoman Natasha Williams-Brown will replace Kamau as acting mayor, according to 11Alive. The councilwoman told the station that the city will continue to function as usual while she assumes the duties of mayor.
“If I am asked to take any official action as acting mayor, that is what I will do, until Mayor Khalid returns to duty,” Williams-Brown said.
Williams-Brown is one of five council members who filed a lawsuit against Kamau in March in an attempt to remove him from office. Only two council members were not parties to the lawsuit, court records show.
The lawsuit alleges that Kamau knowingly disclosed confidential information for his benefit since his election and recorded confidential executive sessions, the Atlanta-Journal Constitution informed at the time.
Kamau has been in a contentious relationship with the council for more than a year. City Hall made an application in June 2022 to the district attorney’s office, requesting an investigation that Kamau charged on a city-issued credit card that was discovered in an audit.
He later asked the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to investigate the city for corruption the following month, according to WXIA.
