Suspect aimed gun at grandmother’s head in carjacking
Atlanta police are searching for a man they say stole a 60-year-old grandmother’s car in broad daylight in southwest Atlanta.
Nell McDay of McDonough had just parked her white 2003 Cadillac Escalade outside her Alta Coventry Station apartment on Greenbriar Parkway when she noticed a few people next to her in a gray SUV, according to a police report.
As McDay walked toward her apartment, a man jumped out of the SUV, pressed a black 9mm gun to her head and demanded her car keys. The incident happened about 1:30 p.m. Dec. 22.
“I dropped down to my knees because I thought he would shoot me in the head,” McDay told Channel 2 Action News. “I thought I would rather turn away from him.”
The suspect drove off in the Escalade and the gray SUV followed, according to the report. The incident is one of several stolen cars and carjackings reported in metro Atlanta over the past week.
Actress Queen Latifah and Fulton County Superior Court Judge Marvin Arrington Sr. were recent victims of thefts in southwest Atlanta.
Just before 9:20 p.m. Dec. 20, Queen Latifah’s 2015 Mercedes-Benze S63 was stolen from a Shell gas station along Fulton Industrial Boulevard as she was filling up her tank. The car was later recovered at an apartment complex on McDaniel Street.
Days later, Arrington was at a BP gas station along Cascade Road just before 9 :20 p.m. Dec. 23 when a man jumped in the car through the passenger door and took off in his 2016 Infiniti Q60. The car was last seen headed north on Research Center Atlanta Drive.
No arrests have been made in either incident.
McDay said multiple people were connected to her car theft.
She told police between two and four people, believed to be teenagers, were seated inside the SUV at the time of the carjacking. No descriptions of them were given.
McDay described the suspect as being 5-foot-7 and 150 pounds. He was also wearing a blue hoodie with white acid wash jeans.
Alliance Property Management, the company that owns the apartment complex, told Channel 2 they are cooperating fully with Atlanta police.
RELATED: Teenagers, known to police, responsible for many Fulton car thefts
“We take the security of our managed communities very seriously, and the safety and well-being of our residents is the top priority of our management team,” the company said in a release.
Property owners said they would contact residents if any information needs to be shared once the investigation is complete. Detectives are reviewing apartment surveillance footage.
McDay said she’s been feeling uneasy since the incident.
“I can’t sleep at night,” she told Channel 2, “I walk the floor all the time and it’s really hard because nothing like that has happened to me before.”
The apartment complex has allowed McDay to break her lease and move, Channel 2 reported.
Still, McDay said she’s “terrified, angry and hurt.”
RELATED: Theft of Queen Latifah’s car helps draw focus to some Fulton crime
