Armed men rob women in Virginia Highland neighborhood

ATLANTA,None — Two women were robbed at gunpoint in a popular Virginia Highland neighborhood last week.

Beth Castro said she and a friend were walking on Los Angeles Avenue headed toward North Highland Avenue on Oct. 18 when two men came up behind them. She said one man pulled a gun on them.

"I assumed he was going to kill us. I mean, I really did. I thought because he cocked the gun and pointed it at us, and we just assumed the worst," Castro told Channel 2's Amy Napier Viteri.

She said the men took their purses, wallets and phones. The women ran to a nearby church and asked someone to call 911. Police said within an hour the men had used Castro's credit cards at three different locations. One of the places was a BP station on Boulevard, where surveillance cameras were not close enough to get a picture. Castro provided a description to a Georgia Bureau of Investigation artist who drew a sketch of one of the suspects.

"There's still that fear, and I still hear that noise, and I still see that face," Castro said.

She told Napier Viteri she has talked with several people who have similar stories about crime in the community. She said she won't feel safe walking around the area until she sees a bigger police presence.

"This is one of the last safe places in Atlanta that I feel I can do that, and I feel like these people are taking that away from us," she said.

Police are looking into whether the two men are connected to other recent robberies in the area.

WSBTV