Forsyth crime spree leads to arrests
The sheriff in Forsyth County is pinning two armed robberies on a band of three men and a woman.
In the latest incident, on March 24, a man was shot in the leg outside his mobile home when he struggled with four robbers who left in a black car with an undisclosed amount of cash. Five days before that, another man was whacked on the head with a pistol and punched in the face after he answered a knock at the door of his mobile home. Two men wearing hoodies demanded money, and attacked him when he said he had none. They, too, left in a black car.
Bethany Hood, 20; Trevor Benson, 19, and Curtis Monaco, 25 -- all of Cumming, were arrested and charged with armed robbery and aggravated assault. Phamethius Simmons, 23, of Atlanta, also was arrested and faces the same charges.
Authorities have linked three of them to a third crime. The day before the shooting, a woman who stopped at a QuikTrip left her wallet in her car and was approached by a man and woman offering to help her with her tire, which was smoking. The woman would later tell police that she then went into the store and when she returned to her car she found her wallet missing, and noticed the couple who'd offered to help her leaving in a dark-colored car.
In addition to robbery and assault, Hood, Monaco and Simmons face charges of entering an auto and of theft and fraud with a financial card.
"These suspects were on a crime spree and it was just a matter of time before someone was seriously injured or killed," Lt. Colonel Gene Moss, of the Forsyth County Sheriff's Office, said in a written statement. He said investigators were still working the case to determine whether the suspects were responsible for similar crimes elsewhere.
About the Author
Ty Tagami is a staff writer for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Since joining the newspaper in 2002, he has written about everything from hurricanes to homelessness. He has deep experience covering local government and education, and can often be found under the Gold Dome when lawmakers meet or in a school somewhere in the state.
