A suspect in the armed robberies of cellular phone stores in the Atlanta area was captured Wednesday after an hour-long standoff at a home in Decatur, police said.
Charles Hamm, 24, was arrested in the 2300 block of Glen Valley Drive by members of the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office Fugitive Squad and U.S. Marshal’s Special Task Force, said DeKalb Sheriff’s spokesman Sgt. Adrion Bell.
“Hamm initially barricaded himself in the Decatur home occupied by a 73-year-old woman and two other young men,” Bell said in a prepared statement. “He was acquainted with all three.”
After holding officers at bay for an hour, Hamm came out and surrendered without incident, Bell said. He is charged with two counts of armed robbery and one count of probation violation and has been booked into DeKalb County Jail.
Hamm is accused of sticking up a Boost Mobile store on Buford Highway in Atlanta on Aug. 31, and a MetroPCS store on Rockbridge Road in Lithonia on Sept. 14, both in DeKalb, Bell said.
Additionally, in Gwinnett County, Snellville police had issued an outstanding warrant for Hamm in the robbery of a MetroPCS store on Henry Clower Boulevard, also on Sept. 14.
Snellville’s warrant charged Hamm with armed robbery, possession of firearm by a convicted felon, having a firearm in commission of a felony and two counts of false imprisonment – forcing two robbery victims into a bathroom and ordering them to stay there.
Hamm was identified by his victims through photo lineups and by store video surveillance, Bell said.
He is the second suspect apprehended in connection with the cell phone store heists.
On Sept. 28, DeKalb arrested an alleged accomplice, Anthony Digby, 20. That man was charged with a single count of armed robbery and is being held without bond in DeKalb County Jail, Bell said.
Hamm, Digby and a third man are suspected in at least a half-dozen armed robberies of cell phone stores in August and September in DeKalb, Gwinnett and possibly Fulton counties.
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