Despite SWAT Team Standoff, Armed Chamblee Suspect Still on Loose
After Chamblee Police fired rounds at an armed suspect last night and called in a SWAT team, the suspect still managed to escape.
Despite efforts Saturday night from three different police departments and a SWAT team to apprehend him, an armed robbery suspect is still at large.
The Chamblee, Sandy Springs and Johns Creek police departments were called into a building near Interstate 285 and Chamblee-Dunwoody Road on Saturday night, closing all surrounding roads, including the Chamblee-Dunwoody exit ramp.
Three suspects attempted to rob Wireless World, a cell phone store on Chamblee Dunwoody Road, CBS Atlanta reports.
A silent alarm went off at approximately 8:30 p.m.
Officers arrived and found a store employee tied up. One of the suspects fled to the nearby woods as an officer fired a round that did not hit him.
The other two men hid in the ceiling, which gave the victim time to escape.
The SWAT team approached at approximately 11 p.m. and took the two men, who surrendered shortly thereafter, into custody.
Twenty minutes later, the road blocks were removed and traffic resumed, 11 Alive reported.
Chamblee Police Chief Mark Johnson said the armed suspect is still at large.
A police helicopter continued a 30-minute unsuccessful search for the suspect who fled. Police will continue to look for the suspect.
Harry Carey
12:08 am on Thursday, October 18, 2012
It was Dunwoody PD who fired at the armed robber who was fleeing.
If you were familiar with the terrain you would understand how difficult finding someone there is. Woods.
It was North Metro Swat who was there to get the hiding robbers out.
The armed felon fleeing was long gone when swat arrived.
Enuff Govt Already
7:51 am on Thursday, October 18, 2012
Well thats new info; the store is in Chamblee so why was Dunwoody there? Did the 911 call go to Dunwoody instead of Chamblee? There are now three 911 centers that cover that corner and I'd like to know if that call was misdirected. Why was the Dunwoody SWAT there if Chamblee pays DeKalb for SWAT serivces? So does Dunwoody get reimbursed by Chamblee for the use of the SWAT service? Are Chamblee citizens going to pay twice for this service? Is this why I saw Sandy Springs police cars patroling Dunwoody that night? One news story had the suspects saying this store was also a pawn shop; is this store another pawn shop? I'm glad the officers are alright but our elected officials should take a long look at situations like this.
Harry Carey
12:25 pm on Thursday, October 18, 2012
As reported on TV... It was North Metro Swat.
The call was from the alarm company not a cell phone.
Chamblee has its own 911 call center.
All the departments around here help each other and have written
agreements to do so.
"we can hang together or we will surely hang separately" B. Franklin
When there was a lost child in Huntley Hills there were 30 Police
Officers there looking for the child.
The elected officials would not understand Police matters any better
than those who post on this site.
If it is a pawn shop then they have a pawn license issued by the
county.
Eric Hovdesven
1:01 pm on Thursday, October 18, 2012
It was a wireless phone store not a pawn shop.
Interesting question about the fact Chamblee Pays DeKalb for Swat Service, because according to the articles http://www.ajc.com/news/news/local/3rd-suspect-arrested-in-chamblee-cellphone-store-b/nSgJy/ It was the North Metro Swat team that responded.
I was driving up Chamblee Dunwoody when it happened, I saw the a Chamblee Police car turn on its blue lights ahead of me and within a 2 or 3 seconds and seemingly out of no where another Chamblee Police car behnind me turned on its blue lights and passed me. I didn't see any DeKalb Police cars even though the west side of Chamblee Dunwoody is DeKalb. Perhaps they came from 285 or later.
This article http://www.ajc.com/news/news/local/3rd-suspect-arrested-in-chamblee-cellphone-store-b/nSgJy/ is also interesting because it mentions a U.S. Marshall's gang unit getting involved. How much of the DeKalb Police gang unit is made up of federal agents and/or how much federal aid do they get? - does the federal government reduce the aid to DeKalb if the population coverage goes down, or do they look at it as a national issue and seek to have DeKalb use the federal aid to cover gang activities through out the county?
Enuff Govt Already
5:04 pm on Thursday, October 18, 2012
I doubt the feds would wholly finance a local government's specialized police unit but if they took grants from the feds then I could see a mandate like servicing a geographic area. I do believe that helicopter seen in the news footage was DeKalb's. The pawn angle was in a news story where the suspects made some statements about that store buying items and other stories say the suspects got there hands on $15K. That seems like a lot of cash to on hand for a cell phone store; IMHO. Okay, if the call for police came from an alarm company then did the call go to Dunwoody or Chamblee or DeKalb? If the call didn't go to Chamblee then why? This incident was in Chamblee and Chamblee residents pay extra taxes for the use of DeKalb's specialized police services like the helicopter and SWAT so why was Dunwoody's SWAT used and who pays this bill? Just interested.