Georgia Tech students robbed in home invasion

By Mike Morris

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Several Georgia Tech students were robbed at gunpoint late Tuesday during a home invasion following a gambling party at an off-campus apartment, police said.

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Vino Wong, vwong@ajc.com Atlanta police were investigating an armed robbery at a house along the 500 block of Ethel Street just north of the Georgia Tech campus.

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No injuries were reported in the incident, which  happened just before midnight in the 500 block of Ethel Street near Hemphill Avenue, in the Home Park neighborhood about two blocks north of campus.

According to an Atlanta police incident report obtained by the AJC, the seven victims were inside the apartment when "the door was kicked in and three black males rushed inside the apartment demanding that everyone get face down on the ground."

The victims, ranging in age from 19 to 26, told police that two of the intruders were wearing ski masks.

Police were notified after an eighth man came to the apartment while the robbery was in progress. That man "knocked on the door and when the door opened slightly, he saw all of his friends on the ground and one male with a gun," according to the police report. He ran across the street to McDonald's and called 911.

One of the men who lived in the apartment told investigators that earlier in the evening, he and some friends were at his home gambling, and he thought he recognized the voice of one of the intruders as someone who had been at the gambling party earlier. But according to the report, "he was unable to give a description of the male whose voice he thought he might have recognized."

The intruders fled, possibly in a white four-door car, after taking cash, cell phones, wallets and a laptop computer.

Georgia Tech officials have not said how many of the victims were students, but four are listed in the school's online student directory.