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Police: 4 arrests may help solve DeKalb-Atlanta robberies

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — Police continue to investigate a series of crimes along the DeKalb County-City of Atlanta border and hope the recent arrest of four teenagers will help solve at least some of the cases.

DeKalb police raided a Bouldercrest Road apartment on July 4 and said they recovered eight guns, televisions and two stolen cars. They charged the four teens with theft. The front door of that apartment is now boarded over with a sheet of plywood. The apartment's neighbor asked not to be identified, but said she often saw young men going in and out of that unit.

"It was just a hangout," said the neighbor. "They used to come over and hang out and that was it. They got drunk or whatever boys do."

She did say she heard several of the young men fighting outside the apartment building one night when someone pulled a gun and fired a shot. No one was hurt, and she didn't call police.

Meanwhile, the latest East Atlanta armed robbery victim said he couldn't positively identify the three men who held him up, only that they were in their late teens or early 20s.

"One man had an AK (-47)," said Eric Hill. "The other one had this semi-automatic pistol to my head."

Hill said the three men jumped him along Glenwood Avenue early Sunday morning as he walked home from an East Atlanta bar.

"They came up behind me," said Hill. "One had a gun to my head. One had a gun to my front. They kept saying 'empty your pockets, empty your pockets. Come on.' Thankfully, they didn't check to see if I had a wallet or anything. They just took my phone."

Police were scheduled to attend a public safety hearing Tuesday night at the Decatur Recreation Center in downtown Decatur to talk to worried residents about their efforts to solve these crimes.