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Police: Armed robbers stole woman's purse with gun inside

ATLANTA — Atlanta police are looking for two men behind an armed robbery at a busy northwest Atlanta shopping center who they believe are behind several other crimes. 

Investigators said two men in a 2001 burgundy Jeep Wrangler approached a woman inside the parking deck at the District at Howell Mill. 
 
One man wearing a ski mask pointed a gun at the woman as she got out of her car and demanded her purse and her ring. 

"It's scary for any woman," shopper April Hall told Channel 2's Amy Napier Viteri. "Especially if we are by ourselves."

Police said the victim, a 50-year-old woman, had just made a deposit at a bank on Chattahoochee Avenue during the afternoon. The man also got away with a Smith & Wesson semi-automatic pistol that was inside the woman's handbag.  

"Not only did you have suspects already with a weapon using it to prey on others, now you have an additional weapon," Sgt. Greg Lyon told Viteri. 

Lyon said the same suspects and SUV, which has South Carolina tags, were also seen at several other locations in the area stealing from cars. 

"It's like they're getting more bold and everything basically if they feel they can get away with it, they're going to keep trying until they get caught," said shopper Dexter Person. 

Police recovered the victim's iPad abandoned in another area of northwest Atlanta.
 
They also reviewed surveillance video from the parking deck which they said showed the suspect's vehicle.