Cobb DA: Man Wanted for Selling Heroin That Killed 17-Year-Old

The Cobb District Attorney’s Office has issued an arrest warrant for a man it says sold heroin to a 17-year-old who overdosed and later died from taking the drug.

Aaron Bubans, the office’s Opioid Fatality Project investigator, wrote the warrant for 38-year-old Austin Joseph Love, who is accused of selling approximately one gram of heroin to the 17-year-old victim at a Waffle House on Sandy Plains Road early in the morning on Sept. 30, 2023.

According to the warrant, the victim overdosed on the heroin and died later that morning.

Bubans used surveillance footage at the restaurant, the phone number Love provided during the transaction and the registration on the car driven by Love to identify him as the suspect, he wrote in the warrant.

The GBI also confirmed by a drug identification report the substance ingested by the victim was heroin.

Love has not yet been arrested, AikWah Leow, a spokesperson for the DA’s office told the MDJ.

Data from the Georgia Department of Health indicates 143 people in Cobb died of opioid overdoses in 2022. Of those, 24 died as a result of heroin overdoses.

With the help of a grant from the U.S. Department of Justice, Broady established the Cobb Opioid Fatality Review Project to combat the opioid epidemic, reduce fatal overdoses and protect people from the epidemic.

Bubans said at a September 2022 town hall showcasing the project that, as the project’s lone investigator, the volume of overdose cases is challenging to tackle alone.

There is also an unfamiliarity among law enforcement with investigating overdoses.

“One of the biggest challenges is that we don’t always get the information (about fatal overdoses) right away,” Bubans said.

According to the warrant for Love’s arrest, it was written more than six months after he allegedly made the drug deal.

Love is charged with selling heroin, a felony.