Local

Decatur police worried about recent spike in crime

DECATUR, Ga. — Decatur police told Channel 2 Action News they are checking to see if the city's recent crime wave is some sort of gang initiation.

There have been several robberies in the last two weeks. Channel 2's Dave Huddleston talked with Deputy Police Chief Keith Lee, who said they are concerned.

"We believe these three cases may be related, just based upon the method of operation. Don't really know what the motivation is. It does raise concern. We are very concerned because of the age of the subjects," Lee said,

Lee said the suspects are 14 to 16 years old.

Just this week, several residents were robbed at gunpoint in and around Oakhurst Park.

Victims were told to give up their cellphones; one suspect rifled through a woman's baby stroller, while children played T-ball and basketball nearby.

"In two of our instances, they have either fired their weapon into the air or into the ground," Lee said.

Another violent encounter happened Wednesday morning when police said a 15-year-old carjacked a woman's vehicle.

In yet another violent encounter, which Lee said is not connected to the Oakhurst violence, about 3:30 Friday morning, a 24-year-old Avondale Estates man's vehicle was carjacked at Sycamore Drive and Grove Street.

A man with a gun tapped on the victim's window and told him to get out of the car or he would blow his brains out.

A shocked Keith Johnson lives at the intersection where the carjacking happened.

"It's still a great neighborhood. I mean, everybody looks out for each other, everybody kind of knows everybody and it's kind of unfortunate to see something like this happen," Johnson said.

In this case, police are looking for three suspects, two women and a man, in their 20s driving a light blue Ford Taurus and the victim's 2007 white BMW.