Sgt. Brett Stephens

No other information regarding the drowned Cobb county police officer, other than the fact that alcohol was involved. As the story goes, however, nobody is sure how intoxicated Sgt. Brent Stephens was when the 22-foot “shore boat” collided with a bouy, flinging him into the dark waters late Thursday evening.

Dark water is unimaginably disorienting

Spokeswoman for the Department of Natural Resources (DNR), Robin Hill, explained that no criminal charges would be pressed unless a reconstruction of the accident proves that some fishy went down. However, while the DNR upholds the law of the lake, the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office filed misdemeanor charges against the driver of the boat, and a woman who was also present when Stephens – according to Reda – jumped off the boat as a prank. Sgt. Ken Reda, and Shelley Powell were charged with obstruction and providing false statements for allegedly falsifying their testimony regarding who was involved, and what the circumstances of the event entailed.

Authorities realized that Reda had failed to make the 9-1-1 call for 90-minutes, while he tried to hide the fact that a third person was on the boat. Once he made the all, he stayed on the line for 47 minutes, anxious and exasperated as he tried to explain the situation to the dispatcher.

On shore, Reda was confident his ex-park-ranger friend made it to dry land: Sgt. Stephens will be missed.