Man shot; cars stolen from Gwinnett, Atlanta

A pair of carjackers bouncing back and forth between Atlanta and Gwinnett County shot a man and stole three cars in two days, police believe.

Shortly after midnight Friday, two armed men approached a woman in her white Honda Accord at 42 11th street in Atlanta, according to police reports.

The woman told police she was on the phone and didn’t see the men until they were upon her, guns drawn, demanding her car.

She threw the keys to the men and fled, police said, leaving her purse and cell phone behind.

Nearly two hours later, the white Accord was seen southbound on the Downtown Connector near Williams Street, where witnesses told police the car lost control and slammed into a concrete wall.

A pair of good Samaritans stopped to help, and found themselves victims of the carjackers, police said.

“The passenger of the white vehicle got out and produced a handgun and said, ‘give it up,’” the incident report said.

Both the passenger and driver of a red Suzuki Forenza abandoned their iPhones – the driver also gave up his wallet with credit cards and $700 cash inside, while his wife was forced to give them her purse – and the two men drove off in their car.

The couple walked to the W Hotel and called police.

The suspects were described as two black men, one about 5 feet, 5 inches tall, younger in age and walking with a limp, and the other between 5-3 and 5-5 and around 21 or 22 years old.

Early Saturday morning, the Suzuki emerged in the parking lot of the Walmart on Rockbridge Road in Gwinnett, police said. Surveillance cameras captured part of what happened next.

The car parked around 2:50 a.m., and both men got out when a blue Honda Fit pulled next to it, police said.

One of the men pointed a gun at the driver of the Honda and demanded his keys and wallet, Gwinnett County Police spokesman Cpl. Jake Smith said.

The other suspect, Smith said, “went to the victim’s (car), started it, and remained inside.”

A Walmart employee leaving his car to go in to work unwittingly walked close to the robbery as it happened. But because he only speaks Albanian – and didn’t see the gun – he didn’t understand when one of the gunmen addressed him, police said.

As the employee walked away from the crime scene, apparently oblivious to what was happening, the gunman shot him in the back of his leg.

The man hurried into the store along with the other victim, and the suspects got into the stolen Honda Fit and sped away, police said.

The Walmart worker was taken to an area hospital and treated for a non-life-threatening gunshot wound.

Atlanta police found the stolen Fit on Sunday and discovered a handgun matching the description of the weapon used in the shooting inside, police said.

All of the stolen cars were recovered, police said.

Atlanta and Gwinnett police are now coordinating to find the two men, whom they consider armed and dangerous.

“Carjacking is a violent crime in and of itself,” Atlanta police spokesman Sgt. Gregory Lyon told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution via email. “But shooting someone, like they did in Gwinnett, takes it to another level. I can tell you that our detectives are going to work collaboratively with Gwinnett County Police to bring these cases to a successful end.”