GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. --
Gwinnett County police charged a man with murder after firefighters said they found chemicals related to methamphetamine production in a house fire that killed three children.
A Gwinnett Police spokesman told Channel 2's Kerry Kavanaugh that officers charged Ivan Gonzalez, 26, with two counts of murder and a third charge was pending. Police were searching for Gonzalez, who they said drove off from the scene.
The children's mother, Neibi Yamel Brito, 22, was charged with trafficking of methamphetamine.
The three children died despite the efforts of three men. Two teenagers told Channel 2's Eric Philips they spotted smoke coming from the home on Spring Mill Drive in Lilburn on Thursday afternoon.
"We just heard this lady screaming about her babies so it was like adrenaline or whatever," said a teen identified only as Connor.
Connor, his friend identified as Joshua, and a third passerby who had a ladder worked quickly to get the children out of the home. The teens told Philips the children were unconscious in an upstairs room.
"We climbed on the roof and brought the children through the window," Joshua said. "I would pass them to someone else."
Firefighters arrived as the rescuers carried the third child out. All three children, an 18-month-old, a 3-year-old and a 4-year-old, died at the hospital.
"It's hard with children. When anything bad happens to kids it's awful," neighbor Christy Burns told Philips.
Investigators said the fire started in a hallway on the first floor when chemicals used to manufacture methamphetamine ignited. In the walls of the home, they found almost $200,000, 4,555 grams of liquid methamphetamine and about one pound of finished methamphetamine, Gwinnett police Cpl. Jake Smith said. He said investigators think an additional four pounds of the drug burned in the fire.
Police said Gonzalez said he would follow paramedics to the hospital but he never arrived. Officers described him as 5 feet 7 inches tall and weighing 190 pounds. Gonzalez has a large tattoo of Jesus on his calf, according to officials. Investigators told Kavanaugh that Gonzalez was last seen driving a late model silver or gray Honda Accord or Civic. Gonzalez also uses the alias John McGowan Torres, police said. Smith said he may flee the state or try to cross into Mexico.
Officers said in a Friday news conference that Gonzalez was arrested a week ago with several other men in a home Suwanee.
Among those men was Antonia Cardenas-Rico, a man once suspected in the stabbing of three Gwinnett children and their father.
Rico was cleared of those charges, and police released Gonzalez as well but charged him with presenting false documents.
Officers told Kavanaugh they didn't believe the two incidents were related.
Copyright 2011 by wsbtv.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
