A boyfriend and girlfriend abducted at gunpoint from outside a DeKalb home were found hours later and 17 miles away Saturday morning shot and lying in a NW Atlanta street, police said.
The 24-year-old man, identified as Jeronta Brown, died Saturday, according to Channel 2 Action News. The 21-year-old woman, identified as Briana Brooks, 21, was critically injured and taken to Grady Hospital, according to Channel 2. Brooks, who was pregnant, is on life support after giving birth to a baby girl, Channel 2 reports.
Police said they are trying to determine a motive and to piece together what happened in the hours between the abduction and the discovery of the two on Ridge Avenue in Atlanta.
The couple, who police say may have been returning from getting something to eat, arrived at the home on Colleen Court around 12:30 a.m., DeKalb police Capt. Stephen Fore told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Saturday. They never made it inside.
Assailants dressed in black — investigators aren’t sure how many there were — confronted the couple, Fore said. “They ran up on them before they got to the front door.”
A witness told police the pair was taken at gunpoint, handcuffed and put in a van before being driven away, Fore said.
Hours later the two were found in NW Atlanta. Police reached the scene there shortly after 6 a.m. Saturday.
Channel 2 Action News reported that a witness said she saw the man laying in the street with no shoes on. Both people were shot in the head. Police believe they were shot at the site, but they are not yet sure at what time, Channel 2 reported.
“We are having a hard time making sense of it,” Fore told the AJC. “Detectives are talking to family and friends and trying to gather information on why this may have taken place. Right now it is all under investigation.”
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