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Carjacking victim irked after 3 kids found with car, but no charges filed

Gunman wore ski mask, lurked at Fayetteville apartments

By JOHN MUNFORD
jmunford@TheCitizenNews.com

After her car was stolen at gunpoint almost two weeks ago, Mary Attaway still feels like a victim, even though her car was recovered the next day by police in Alabama ... with three young men inside.

No charges have been filed in the case, and Attaway said no one bothered for days to warn Attaway’s neighbors at Weatherly Walk Apartments in Fayetteville that the incident even happened.

"I really feel like they want this swept under the carpet," said Attaway, a single mother who cleans houses and scrapes by on a meager income along with her 14-year-old son, Ryan.

Fayetteville police say there isn't enough evidence for them to file charges on any of the three boys who were found with the car. Attaway said the detective on the case told her the boys said they "rented" the car for 50 dollars from a man in Riverdale; they also said they fled pursuing police officers because the driver didn't have a license.

"He said, 'These boys are from a different life. They don't know any better,'" Attaway said. She read that to mean they wouldn't be charged at all.

Police found a ski mask inside the vehicle which may have been the exact one used by the tall man who drove off with Attaway’s Jeep Cherokee. He pointed a gun at her when she instinctively tried to stop him from driving away, Attaway said.

It was a motherly instinct, as Attaway thought of her son Ryan, who had been in the front passenger seat after dark Friday, June 18 when the incident occurred.

Attaway estimated the gun was pointed less than an inch from her face. The masked bandit told her to back off.

"I just put my hands up and apologized," Attaway said. "He was ordering me to the ground, and of course, I did. ... Since my son was out of the car, I really didn't care anymore. That's the last thing I remember. Really, I went numb."

Fayetteville Police Lt. Beverly Trainor said the department is trying to work with Greene County, Ala. authorities where the car was recovered. That agency would have to file a charge such as theft by receiving stolen property, but it has not done so yet, Trainor said.

"We'd have to charge them with theft of a motor vehicle and at this point we don't have enough evidence to prove that any of the three subjects stole the vehicle from Fayetteville," Trainor said.

"We are trying to work with them and possibly their district attorney," Trainor said of the Greene County authorities. "For some reason, they don't seem to want to file charges at this point."

The lack of action has Attaway hot under the collar.

"They said at this point they don't have anything they can charge them with unless they have hair samples in the ski mask," Attaway said. "... Who knows how many cars he's stolen or people he's shot?"

Police told Attaway the pursuit which led to the car being recovered ran through two counties.

"They said they clocked my Jeep at 115 miles per hour," Attaway said. "I didn't know a Jeep could go that fast."

Almost a week after the incident, a letter from "management" at Weatherly Walk was distributed to residents with a general warning of the incident. It also mentioned the fact that the complex doesn't employ any type of security personnel and any crimes should be reported to police immediately.

"I wonder what else they haven't put fliers out on," Attaway said.

Police don't normally distribute fliers to warn residents unless there is a pattern of repeat activity, Trainor said. But officers did step up patrols in that area for the rest of the night, she added.

Attaway credited apartment managers for changing the locks to her apartment, since the carjacker got away with her purse and its contents. Still, she wants better lighting put up around the dumpster in an effort to discourage a similar incident from happening again.

Perhaps most of all, she wants the public to know about the incident, too.

"I don't want people to not know about this and not have another accident prevented."

The experience has left Attaway believing "every last person is allowed to have their car stolen." She notes that she chose to live in Fayette County because of the low crime rate and excellent schools.

Without her car for several days, she was unable to go to work. "And if I don't work, I don't get paid," Attaway said.

Attaway also complained that three days after the incident, she was unable to get a copy of the incident at police headquarters because it couldn't be found. Trainor said a report was filed, but it had been "lost" in the department's new computer system.

"A report was done," Trainor said.