S. DeKalb neighbors unite to prevent more attacks

The assualts began in April with two attempted kidnappings, said Mekka Parish, a spokeswoman with the DeKalb Police Department. A powerful man in his 30s tried to force the victims into a light-colored minivan, but they got away.

In June, a female was raped, Parish said, and in late July another was sexually assaulted. Police believe the same man was behind the second pair of attacks, though he drove a sedan that time. The first two victims were standing near a MARTA bus stop, and the last two were on their way to or from one, Parish said.

The string of assaults triggered a community meeting several weeks ago, and the meeting inspired the neighborhood patrols.

“We have to come out of our homes and get more involved to make sure our community is safe for the women and children,” said Wendell Muhammad, who is leading the effort. “We can’t rely on the police to do that because we don’t have enough” officers.

Muhammad said he was among at least 200 residents, most of them women, who attended the community meeting at the Porter Sanford, III Performing Arts & Community Center last month. He is a former president of the Southwest DeKalb High School parent teachers association, and has a daughter attending the school. He said he was alarmed to learn that the assaults had been going on for several months because girls ride the public bus system home in the evening after band practice and other extracurricular events.

County commissioner Larry Johnson, who organized the meeting, saw the incidents as a way to galvanize his constituents to fight this criminal -- and crime in general -- by walking their streets.

“Police are one part of it, but neighbors working together is a bigger component,” he said.

The attacks have occurred in the area around the intersection of I-20 and I-285. Muhammad lives in the nearby Newberry Downs neighborhood. He said he has walked through five other neighborhoods with residents from each, knocking on hundreds of doors. They warn neighbors and urge them to form their own patrols, he said.

So far, he’s come across only one person who thought they might have seen the suspect. But then Muhammad pulled out the police department’s sketch of the suspect, and the person realized it wasn’t him.

Parish said detectives are concerned the perpetrator grew more “aggressive” in the later attacks. He is described as black with a light complexion and a muscular build, about five-foot, nine-inches. Police believe he knows the area well.