Expert: Home invasions about control

By Bill Rankin

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Terrie Abdel-Razek was sound asleep when two men burst into her bedroom, shining flashlights in her face.

“Get up, mama,” one of the men screamed. “Get in the bathroom. You better not come out.”

The groggy woman did as she was told. Outside her bathroom door she heard screams, then gunshots. The five intruders who invaded her home, she soon learned, had doused her 29-year-old son with bleach and then shot him before he dove through an upstairs window to escape.

The incident in the upper middle class south Fulton County subdivision was one of a number of brazen home invasions that have terrified metro residents in recent weeks. The crime, a hybrid of burglary and armed robbery, strikes people in the sanctity of their homes.

Cat burglars don’t want you around and try to steer clear of dogs. Home invaders don’t care.

It’s all about control, said Chris McGoey, a national security consultant in Los Angeles.

“They really like the aspect of getting inside, closing the door and taking their time,” McGoey said. “They want you home.”

Abdel-Razek called her Aug. 17 home invasion horrifying.

“It’s devastating to have someone to invade your privacy, to come in your room at nighttime,” she said. “I didn’t know what was going on.”

Abdel-Razek said she suspected the invaders knew her because many call her “Mama.”

Her son, Carl Lingham, was shot in the thigh. His girlfriend and her four children were uninjured. The intruders drove away in Lingham’s Ford Windstar.

That same evening, another south Fulton County home was invaded by intruders who shot a 22-year-old woman in the face and beat her 1-year-old son.

Nikki Neely, who lived in Chattahoochee Hills, was found on her kitchen floor with her battered son, Javante, nearby.

Police arrested three suspects and say robbery was the motive and that the crime may be gang-related. It was not a random invasion — Neely’s family knew the family of suspect Antoine Wimes.

Scott Mcbride of the Fulton County Police Department compares a house burglary and a home invasion to someone who hotwires an unattended car and a carjacking at gunpoint. While some recent metro home invasions have been particularly violent, they do not appear to be on the uptick, he said.

There were 30 home invasions investigated by Fulton police last year and 18 so far this year. If the trend holds, there will be about 27 by year’s end, Mcbride said.

The Atlanta Police Department does not distinguish home invasions from armed robberies or forced entries into homes or apartments — which occur when residents are home or away.

One of the city’s most recent home invasions occurred one evening last week. A 34-year-old man was sitting in his apartment near the Georgia Tech campus when someone knocked on his door. He looked through the peephole, saw someone wearing a baseball cap he thought he recognized so he cracked open the door, police said.

Five men burst in. One had a Taser. Another, who wore a black T-shirt with “Enforcement” printed on the front, pulled a gun and ordered the victim to get on the floor. Within five minutes, it was over. The intruders left with a flat-screen TV, a laptop computer, a digital camera, cellphones and a debit card.

Just a few days earlier, a girl in Buckhead had a harrowingly close call. The 12-year-old who was home alone called her father after someone began knocking on the front door and repeatedly ringing the doorbell. Her father told her not to open the door, only to make sure it was locked, according to a police report.

Before she knew it, a man kicked in the door and screamed at her, ordering her to leave. The girl fled to a neighbor’s home and called police. The intruder left before taking anything.

Law enforcement officials say most home invasions are not random hits. Typically, they involve someone with knowledge, first- or secondhand, of what’s going to be inside.

Clayton County Police Lt. Rebecca Brown said too many home invasions are tied to drugs. The intruders are looking for narcotics or a large stash of cash.

For that reason, Brown said, neighbors who see suspicious behavior — such as cars frequently coming and going out of a driveway — should report it.

“Bullets don’t have eyes,” Brown said. “They go through walls. Anyone can be at risk in this kind of home invasion.”

Brown also said business owners shouldn’t be closing up shop and bringing home a bag of money. Word gets around. More people should be using banks and safety deposit boxes to store their money and most valuable possessions, she added.

A series of Gwinnett County home invasions that resulted in a conviction in April relied on inside information that the victims were small business owners known to keep large sums of money at home.

Quincy Marcel Jackson, a Riverdale man now serving life plus 30 years in prison, invaded a number of homes. One culminated in the death of a partially paralyzed Lilburn man who had fled Ethiopia seeking political asylum and a better life here.

Last year, Jackson and others invaded the home Tedla Lemma shared with his brother’s family and killed him by gagging him so tightly he suffocated. Lemma, 51, was paralyzed on his left side from a previous robbery.

Jackson and his co-defendants also invaded the home of a Stone Mountain jeweler, demanding money and jewelry, police say. The intruders took Sam Mahabal and his wife to their store in Buckhead, leaving their 15-year-old son bound and watched over by a member of the crew. The family was lucky to survive the incident; Mahabal bolted when they got to the store. The suspects panicked and fled.

Lorna Araya, who is also charged with the invasions, was the common thread — she knew the business owners either through the local Ethiopian community or through family ties, Gwinnett Assistant District Attorney Christa Kirk said. “She had the knowledge, and Jackson got the muscle to get it done.”

-- Staff photographer John Spink contributed to this article.

Security tips to guard against home invasions:

-- Install solid doors, heavy-duty locks, burglar bars and window security devices

-- Keep all doors, windows and garages locked at all times

-- Use the door peephole before opening the door

-- Use your porch light to help you to see clearly outside

-- Do not open the door to strangers or solicitors

-- Call police if a stranger acts suspiciously or if you see suspicious behavior in your neighborhood

-- Hold a family meeting to discuss home-security plans

-- Set the home perimeter alarm at night, if you have one

-- Do not keep large sums of money at home

Sources: Crime Doctor, a security consulting firm; Fulton County police; Clayton County police