Gwinnett County

Home invasion suspects tied to armed carjacking of teacher, police say

GWINETT COUNTY, Ga. — Channel 2 Action News has confirmed that three crimes stretching at least 40 miles are all connected.

Channel 2's Tyisha Fernandes first reported on Monday that someone carjacked a teacher outside Heritage Elementary School in south Fulton County.

Then there was home invasion and shooting overnight on Terrace Court in Peachtree Corners.

It ended when a victim from that shooting called for help on Bolton Road in northwest Atlanta early Tuesday morning. Police say he was in the car stolen in the carjacking.

When the two teens suspects tried to commit a home invasion in Peachtree Corners, things didn’t go as planned, according to officers.

Gwinnett County police say someone inside the apartment shot one of the teens before they could steal anything.

Police say the suspects left the apartments before officers arrived. That when investigators said they headed to Atlanta to a home on Bolton Road.

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Someone there called police and said a teenager was shot in the arm and stomach.

When Atlanta police got to the house, they said the teen wouldn’t tell them who shot him or what happened. But he did tell police he was riding in a white Dodge Challenger.

Police figured out the car is the same white Challenger someone took from a teacher at gunpoint at Heritage Elementary on Monday.

Fulton County Schools Director of Safety Shannon Flounnory said the carjacking had nothing to do with someone targeting Heritage Elementary, that it was a thief who came to the school’s neighborhood looking to get rid of a stolen car he was already driving.

“We don’t feel that anyone else is in danger at this particular point. This was a crime of opportunity,” Flounnory said.

Now, school police are trying to connect the dots and figure out if any of the teen suspects carjacked the teacher.

Parents are eager to find out.

"That could've been me coming in the morning. It's scary," parent Savion Thomas said.