As police investigate the deaths of a couple kidnapped last weekend in DeKalb County and then dumped in Atlanta, they are wondering if another kidnapping early Thursday is related.friday
Much like the couple in DeKalb, Capt. Paul Guerrucci, commander of the Atlanta Police Department’s homicide unit, said a woman was apparently targeted for kidnapping in East Atlanta early Thursday. Just like in the DeKalb kidnappings, there was a ransom demand.
But unlike the kidnapping of the DeKalb couple, the woman from East Atlanta was not harmed. She was released and police found her almost 18 hours later on Thursday around 7 p.m. Guerrucci declined to give any details about the kidnap victim, the ransom demand, how she was found or where she was found. He said police feared for her safety.
“We do not believe we have a kidnapping crew going around and snatching people off the street,” he said.
Guerrucci also said investigators have not decided if the kidnappings were done by the same men, at least two.
Briana Brooks, the new mother found shot and critically wounded when she and her boyfriend were taken Saturday, was taken off life support early Thursday and died at Grady Memorial Hospital. The 21-year-old had given birth prematurely to a daughter in the hours after she was shot.
This was the second child for Briana Brooks and her 23-year-old boyfriend, Jeronta Brown, who was already dead when the two were found in northwest Atlanta on Ridge Avenue, 17 miles away from where they were taken early Saturday. Both were shot in the head.
Brown’s 14-year-old sister was holding his 8-month-old daughter when she saw armed men, dressed in black and claiming to be FBI agents, grab him and Brooks, handcuff them, put them in an an SUV and speed off.
Later a demand for $150,000 ransom was made by someone using Brown’s cell phone.
Police think the attack on Brooks and Brown was targeted just as they think the woman kidnapped in East Atlanta was specifically picked.
“The motive and all that is still under investigation,” said Capt. Stephen Fore of the DeKalb County Police Department which is investigating the Brooks-Brown kidnapping while APD investigates their homicides.
“We have multiple leads to follow up on,” said Guerrucci of the homicide investigation.
Guerrucci said like in the Brooks-Brown kidnappings, investigators think the men who took a woman from East Atlanta had followed her there. Coincidentally, she had just backed into a parked car when a man ran up and pulled her out of her car as another driving an SUV drove up.
There were surveillance cameras in the area but none caught images of the kidnapping.
There were witnesses, however. Some said they heard the kidnappers claim to be law enforcement officers but others said they did not hear such a claim.
Guerrucci said there also was an ransom demand in the case of the woman taken in East Atlanta. He would not say how much or who received the demand.
Guerrucci said he did not believe either crime was drug-related but beyond that he could not offer a motive.
The funeral for Brooks will be held at 1 p.m. Sept. 13 at Mt. Nebo Baptist Church, 1025 McDonough Blvd., Atlanta, and the funeral for her boyfriend, 24-year-old Jeronda Brown, will be at 1 p.m. Saturday at Mt. Patmos Baptist Church, 2207 Candler Rd., Decatur.
Thursday night, family and friends of the couple gathered for a candlelight vigil.
At the vigil, Brown’s mother, Kawana Brown, called her son’s death “terrifying, horrifying.”
Brown’s grandmother, Robin Bryant, urged the suspects to surrender.
“That was my first grandson,” Bryant told Channel 2 Action News. “I want you to turn yourself in. That was not fair.”
Brown’s stepfather, Calvin Reddick, wondered if his stepson was targeted because his family recently received a large settlement check.
“I drive a nice car,” he said. “My wife drives a nice car. They must know we have money.”
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