Alabama teens caught with stolen firearms in Coweta County, police say

NEWNAN, Ga. - Authorities in Newnan and Coweta County say they have seen a disturbing trend of teenagers with guns. In less than a week, there have been two separate incidents of teens involving stolen guns.

It’s important to note that in these two incidents leading to the arrests of three armed teenagers, none of the teens were actually from Coweta County, but had either come to the area to allegedly commit crimes with the weapons or were passing through.

In the latest incident, Newnan police officers say they pulled over a carload of teenagers from Alabama and discovered two handguns under the driver’s seat. Police say one of them was stolen.

Police have charged the 17-year-old driver, Jaydian Hardnett-Hunter of Opelika, Alabama, with theft by receiving a stolen firearm, bringing a stolen weapon across state lines, underage possession of a firearm, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, misdemeanor possession of marijuana, and a headlights violation, which was the reason for the traffic stop.

This is a community already on edge last week over the armed carjacking of a woman by a 15-year-old and 16-year-old.

That incident resulted in a high-speed chase, the immediate arrest of one of the teens, and a manhunt for the second one, who deputies captured later that evening.

In the aforementioned traffic stop, there were five juveniles in the car. The driver was charged because police say he was closest to the guns that were found under his seat.

Police say all of these weapons charges are felonies.