Across Georgia

Teacher takes control of errant bus

SAVANNAH, Ga. - A Savannah science teacher is being hailed as a hero after taking control of a field-trip bus carrying 40 seventh graders when the driver collapsed.

The group was en route from Coastal Middle School to the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta on Friday morning when the driver slumped in his seat.

Teacher Eric Neidlinger, who was three rows back, pulled the driver's foot from the accelerator, sat on his lap and steered the bus from the Interstate 16 median back onto the highway and into the right-side emergency lane just shy of the Canoochee River bridge outside of Metter.

The Kelly Tours bus driver was treated and released at a Candler County hospital for dehydration. Another driver was assigned, and the field trip continued.

Atlanta police search for store clerk's killer

ATLANTA - Police are searching for two suspects after a clerk was shot and killed during the robbery of a convenience store in southwest Atlanta.

Officials say the shooting at the Stop 'N Shop in Atlanta's West End neighborhood about 8 p.m. Sunday was caught on videotape. It shows one of the two robbers shooting the clerk in the head while the man holds up his hands in surrender.

Two witnesses were in the store during the robbery.

Police identified the clerk as 24-year-old Harish Roy.

The video shows one of the suspects walking up to the register while the second waits at the door. The suspect jumps over the counter with a gun in his hand.

Husband in Ga. slaying caught in Mexico

CANTON, Ga. - A Georgia man is being held without bond in the Jan. 19 beating death of his wife after he surrendered to authorities in Mexico.

Canton police spokeswoman Stacy Bailey says 41-year-old Rodney Burton is charged with murder and aggravated assault in the death of 43-year-old Kimberly Burton, an optician.

Magistrate Judge James E. Drane ordered Burton held without bond in a first appearance hearing at the county jail.

Bailey says Burton spent the past two months in Cancun and Cozumel. He was taken into custody Saturday by federal marshals working with U.S. customs agents and Mexican authorities.