A string of recent burglaries and robberies in Decatur have at least one thing in common, police say.
The crimes share “characteristics in … the number and age of the suspects involved,” Decatur Police Chief Mike Booker said in a statement.
So far all the culprits appear to be male teens.
In Decatur, there have been 13 daytime burglaries over the past month, most of which have occurred around South Candler Street in the Oakhurst and Winnona Park neighborhoods.
That doesn’t include a trio of face-to-face incidents earlier this week, including the armed robbery of three women at Oakhurst Park Tuesday afternoon and a carjacking in downtown Decatur on Wednesday.
Another carjacking that occurred Friday morning on Sycamore Drive is not believed to be related. The victim was robbed at gunpoint by two female suspects and a male accomplice. All three are believed to be in their late teens or early 20s, police said.
Meanwhile, investigators are still on the lookout for three teen male suspects in Tuesday’s incident. The suspects stole a maroon Honda CRV owned by one of the victims and an iPhone.
A 15-year-old was apprehended in the carjacking after the vehicle he had stolen flipped over. Booker said five additional juvenile offenders have been detained, and the burglaries appear to be connected to similar crimes in Atlanta and DeKalb County.
“We are meeting and comparing information on a daily basis with both DeKalb County and City of Atlanta officers working the cases,” Booker said.
More officers have been brought in to assist in the investigation, and police have even enlisted firefighters to help patrol the affected areas, he said.
Booker will meet next week with both the Oakhurst and Winnona Park neighborhood associations.
“We want to assure the community that resolving these incidents are a top priority,” Decatur Mayor Jim Baskett said. “We are confident that they are utilizing every available resource to catch the perpetrators.”
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