‘I could have been next’: ex-members of extremist group on deadly hostage standoff in Fayetteville

FAYETTEVILLE, Ga. - Former members of the Black Hammer party said once they joined, they couldn’t leave.

On Tuesday, 911 operators got a call from inside the group’s Fayetteville home with someone saying the same.

"I was starved out, sleep-deprived, I couldn’t take it no more," said a woman who called herself Savvy, the group’s former chief of staff. "I just wanted to go home."

Black Hammer is an organization widely considered a fringe extremist group that targets people who are homeless for recruitment.

One of the nine members inside the home recounted Tuesday’s six-hour standoff exclusively to FOX 5 on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution from those still in the group.

"We woke up and the police and everything were surrounding the house, so we were asked to come out one by one," they said.

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They said the group’s leader Gazi Kodzo, whose legal name is Augustus Romain, hijacked the movement and held them against their will.

"I could’ve been next," they said. "I would’ve been next."

Former members said Kodzo went to places heavily frequented by people experiencing homelessness like Woodruff Park, and recruited young people experiencing homelessness into the group, promising them food, shelter, and income.

They said once they realized what they were in, they were trapped.

"He would beat us, he would make us do physical labor," Savvy said in a phone interview. "He forced me to stand outside for like five hours with his defense [minister] so I couldn’t leave."

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At the end of Tuesday’s standoff, police said they found the body of 18-year-old Amonte Ammons, one of the alleged kidnappers, who the group calls their "minister of defense."

Police said he killed himself.

Ammons’ mom, back home in North Carolina, said her son battled mental illness.

She said she had no idea what he was involved in.

"My son called me and told me he was in an organization that it was helping the homeless," Shreeda Maby said. "If I had known that this was going on down there, God is my living witness I would’ve never let my son stay in Georgia."

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Ammons believes someone killed her son. Current members of the group claim police killed him. However, the former member who was there said that was improbable.

The group began in 2019 with a stated mission of "taking the land back for all colonized people."

Former members said Kodzo infiltrated it.

"I want to make it very clear that the people who ended up joining this group are victims," said W.F. Thomas, a researcher who focuses on extremist groups. "Especially unhoused people, it’s young people, it’s queer people that might have been thrown out by their family, people of color. Those who might not have any options."

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Savvy said she had to pull a knife on the group in order to free herself.

"I still blame Kodzo because at the end of the day, [they] put children in a position that they shouldn’t have been put in," Savvy said.

The former member of the group who spoke to FOX 5 still struggles with impending homelessness and fears retribution for leaving. The Atlanta Justice Alliance is working to help them. For more information and how to help visit the Atlanta Justice Alliance’s Instagram.