Two suspects have been charged after a botched robbery in a North Georgia neighborhood led to a shooting that left two 19-year-olds dead, authorities said.
The teens’ bodies were discovered Tuesday in separate locations near Ga. 82 in the eastern part of Barrow County after deputies responded to a call about suspicious people standing around a home wearing masks, sheriff’s office spokesman Maj. Ryan Sears said previously.
When authorities arrived in the neighborhood on Beech Creek Circle about 1:30 a.m., they found a woman’s body inside a car several hundred feet from the home. She had been shot to death, deputies said. A short time later, Winder police found the body of a man just up the road, Sears said. The two people killed were identified Friday as Erika Contreras and Jose Barrera, both of Athens.
According to investigators, Contreras and Barrera tried to rob a man inside a car along with two others, but their intended victim was also armed and began shooting. The two surviving robbery suspects, 20-year-old Julio Rivera and 19-year-old Alphonzo Gonzalez, were charged with criminal attempt to commit armed robbery and aggravated assault with intent to rob, Sears said.
Both are being held at the Barrow County Jail, and additional charges are possible.
Police said the robbery victim has not been charged. It wasn’t immediately clear Friday afternoon if he and the suspects knew each other.
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