FAYETTEVILLE, Ga. — A man's 911 call relayed a desperate need for help, a plea to come and rescue both himself and multiple others he said were "locked in chains."
The words were simple, but dire.
"I'm kidnapped," he whispered.
When asked who kidnapped him, the man answered quietly.
"Black Hammer."
That call led to a SWAT standoff last month at a home in Fayetteville and the eventual arrest of the leader of a self-styled revolutionary collective known as the Black Hammer Party.
According to the group, the Black Hammer Party was formed in Atlanta back in 2019, and it is considered extremist. Black Hammer members have openly said they have an alliance with the Proud Boys, which the Southern Poverty Law Center has classified as a hate group.
11Alive learned that the group's reported leader, Augustus Romain - known as Gazi Kodzo - is in custody following the incident on July 21 in Fayetteville. He is facing charges including aggravated sodomy, two counts of conspiracy to commit a felony and criminal street gang activity, and two counts each of being a party to aggravated assault, being a party to false imprisonment and being a party to kidnapping.
A 21-year-old man named Xavier H. Rushin, identified by the group as "Colonel Keenum," was also arrested and faces charges of conspiracy to commit a felony, false imprisonment, kidnapping, aggravated assault, criminal street gang activity and obstruction.
When asked where the kidnappers were going to be when police arrived, the man told the 911 operator that they were upstairs and that they had somebody watching them on-site.
Answering with distressed whispers, the man told the operator where he and "multiple kids" were being held.
"We are downstairs in the garage locked in chains," he said. "Please make them search this garage."
"Do you have any weapons on you?" the 911 operator asked.
"No, but I could die any second," he replied.
The man alerted the operator that the group's members had picked him up at an Amtrak station.
Arrest warrants obtained by 11Alive indicated two members of the Black Hammer group were held against their will in a garage at the Fayetteville house, and one was allegedly raped.
When officers arrived, they said nine people voluntarily came out of the home when officers arrived on scene.
The warrants do not make clear what later happened during the standoff to the two members who'd allegedly been locked into the garage.
A robot later searched the home and found a member, AP, "unresponsive with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head." AP and Rushin allegedly directed the two group members into the garage to be locked up at the direction of Romain.
Both Romain and Rushin are being held at the Fayette County Jail. Police have not yet offered any details about any of the other individuals who were at the home.
11Alive is not releasing the name of the victims due to the nature of the case.