A woman was beaten and her car stolen Saturday in the parking deck of a northeast Atlanta Target store and police said it was the second violent robbery in nine days at the popular shopping center.
While the first incident happened around midnight on June 26, the most recent attack happened in broad daylight.
According to an Atlanta police report, the victim told officers she parked her Mercedes Benz ML350 in the the lower parking deck of the Target store in the Edgewood Retail District on Caroline Street at Moreland Avenue. As she got out of her car about noon Saturday, a man “punched her in the head and she fell on the ground,” authorities said.
She told police the man took her purse and car keys and told her, “stay on the ground or I will … kill you.”
The suspect then got into the woman’s car and put it in reverse.
“She advised she had to roll out of the way in order not to get run over as he drover off with the vehicle,” the report states.
The victim was treated at the scene for head injuries, and taken to Piedmont Hospital for further treatment.
Late last month, police released surveillance video of a man being punched and robbed by four men on June 26 in the parking deck next to the Barnes & Noble store in the same shopping center.
The man’s bag and wallet were stolen, and he was punched in the face when he tried to ride off on his bicycle, police said.
No arrests have been made in either shopping center attack, according to police.
The Edgewood Retail District opened in 2005, bringing big box shops like Best Buy to Little Five Points, a haven for home-grown boutiques, bars and tattoo parlors.
The project was developed by Florida-based real estate firm Sembler Co., and it initially faced stiff neighborhood resistance that ultimately resulted in dozens of modifications to the existing plan, including a park.
Much of the neighborhood concerns about the project related to the size of the development, traffic and the need for more green space.
Residents also sparred with the state and developers on ways to make the area around the project and the busy Moreland Avenue corridor more walkable. Many in the region worried traffic would clog streets.
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