A female shopper at the Fayette Pavilion on Dec. 13 refused to give up her vehicle when confronted by a man threatening her with a handgun. She drove away, avoiding the carjacking and leaving the man with no choice but to flee the scene.
Det. Mike Whitlow said a shopper at the Marshalls department store had entered her Hummer at 11 p.m. when she was approached by a male carrying a handgun. The man pointed the gun at the woman and told her to give him the vehicle, said Whitlow.
“The woman refused and sped off,” Whitlow said.
At that point the man ran, Whitlow said, adding that officers were still in the Pavilion area from an incident that occurred two hours earlier.
Witnesses at the scene gave conflicting accounts as to how the man left the area. Some said he was picked up by another vehicle while others said he ran north toward Walmart, said Whitlow.
Whitlow said obtaining a description of the man was made more difficult given that the incident occurred during the nighttime hours.
In the earlier incident, Whitlow said an officer patrolling the Pavilion as part of increased patrols in the area came upon three men standing beside a vehicle in the Tinseltown theater parking lot at 9 p.m. The officer ran the license plate as he passed and it came back as having been recently carjacked in Fulton County, Whitlow said.
The officer drove back to the car and the three men began running when they saw him approaching. The officer called for back-up, with Fayetteville officers and K-9 units and sheriff’s deputies with their K-9 units soon arriving.
Officers canvassed the area but were unable to locate the men, Whitlow said.
A check of the vehicle revealed a sawed-off shotgun inside, said Whitlow.
It is not known if the men seen standing beside the vehicle at 9 p.m. had arrived at the Pavilion in that vehicle nor is it certain that it was one of the men who two hours later attempted the carjacking, though Whitlow said he believes it to be the case.
