Atlanta police couldn't help but notice the brazenness of six juveniles arrested after a Sunday carjacking near Midtown.
According to a police report released Thursday, the juveniles joked about how easily the courts let them go without punishment. They made unsolicited statements implicating themselves in multiple crimes. And, at the Metro Regional Youth Detention Center where they were taken, police said they threatened officers with physical violence and flashed gang signs to other juveniles.
The suspects, whose names were not released, were arrested after a woman was rear-ended by a stolen vehicle near Midtown on Sunday — and then carjacked by one of its passengers.
The victim was driving on Avery Drive NE and preparing to turn onto Beverly Road when she was rear-ended by a silver Jeep Liberty with multiple young men inside, police previously told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The victim got out of her car and attempted to speak with the driver of the Liberty, but he did not roll down his window.
The driver-side passenger got out and “jumped into” the victim’s Ford Escape, police said. Both vehicles drove off.
Police got a break in the case when an employee at a gas station in the 1900 block of Donald Lee Hollowell Parkway called them Sunday night. The employee said two juveniles entered the store, one with a handgun, according to the police report.
The carjacking victim’s Ford Escape was nearby. Police arrested all six juveniles a short time later on obstruction and other charges.
The arrests come as Midtown residents have grown more alarmed about recent carjackings, robberies and break-ins in their neighborhood.
Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed on Tuesday hosted a town hall meeting in Midtown where residents expressed their concerns.
Reed unveiled a plan to increase the number of officers on the street and to have a special detail conduct sweeps around Piedmont Park.
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