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Police: Robber targeting female Hispanic taxi drivers

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — DeKalb County police are hoping surveillance video helps them catch a robber they say is targeting female taxi drivers.
 
Police said the man has flagged female taxi drivers down and at least three times and asked them to take him along Pleasantdale Road, where he robs them with a knife or most recently at gunpoint. He then takes off behind the businesses in the area. Cameras on along a nearby building captured video of him moments after some of the crimes.
 
The video showed a man running with a purse and crashing into a shelf behind a business on Pleasantdale Road seconds after police said he robbed a female taxi driver at gunpoint.
 
"He appears to be targeting the Hispanic female taxi cab drivers," said DeKalb police detective C.D. Cantrell.
 
Cantrell said the man, who is also Hispanic, flags down women driving cabs and on three occasions since June tells them to take him to the location.
 
Video showed the man knocking at a door where he tells the driver he has to pick something up. But that's when one victim said he came back to the car and robbed her.
 
The victim didn't want to be identified but in Spanish told Channel 2's Amy Napier Viteri she shouted at the man to stop when he opened her door and grabbed her purse.
 
She said he stole cash, her driver's license as well as her papers showing U.S. residency and documentation from her native Ecuador. Police said in that robbery, the man didn't use a weapon but since then he's used a knife to rob one victim and a gun in the most recent one on Aug. 16.
 
"That's our main concern that at some point he is going to be at that point where he is going to use one of these," Cantrell said.
 
Police also believe the video showed the man after another robbery in early August but said no victim has come forward.
 
The victim, a mother of two, said she still drives her taxi to make a living but no longer feels safe.
 
One thing police stressed is that if there are other victims out there, they said they are not interested in a person's immigration status. They merely want victims to report these crimes so they can investigate and hopefully arrest this man.