DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — A Brookhaven police detective says the robber who fired at a Brookhaven restaurant chef is the same one who came close to hitting a Brookhaven police sergeant.
"I'm trying to chase him down," Pedro Castro said. "About halfway down that alley, he turns around and starts shooting at me. I didn't have time to be scared. It was more like an instinctual thing. It just came to me. I just did what I had to do."
Castro says he had just finished work at Newk's restaurant off Briarcliff in Brookhaven, and was waiting to give a ride to a couple of co-workers when somebody else came out the back door -- a robber, dressed in black and wearing a mask.
"He approaches the car, gun in hand, he points at the front of my window and tells me to get out of the car, not in those words," Castro said.
Brookhaven Police Detective Tom Martin alleges the masked man was Brandon Barabino, who is also accused of shooting at Brookhaven Police Sgt. Lonnie Napier.
The bullet shot at Napier was inches away from his patrol car headrest. Martin says Barabino later surrendered, but has not talked to police about the incident.
Martin says Castro's actions were instrumental in the sequence of events that led to Napier finding the suspect's vehicle nearby.