Friday, Mar. 25, 2005 | ||
Bad Links? | Morrow couple nabbed in string of home invasionsBy BEN NELMS A Morrow man and woman were arrested last week in connection with the armed robbery of a convenience store near Palmetto and a series of five home invasions of elderly residents in Fairburn and unincorporated Fulton and Fayette counties. Brandy Nicole Snow, 20, and Ryan Patrick Snow, 32, were charged with multiple counts of aggravated assault and armed robbery in the incidents, according to Fairburn Detective Ben Pace, who said the two would sometimes work together and sometimes separately. A handgun and a knife were used during the commission of the crimes, he added. The crime spree occurred over a period beginning March 10, with the first home invasion taking place in the unincorporated area of South Fulton, followed by a home invasion in Fairburn on March 14 that resulted in minor injuries to the resident and another in the city on March 15 where more serious injuries to the victim resulted, said Pace. The fourth home invasion, also on March 15, occurred in the unincorporated area of South Fulton and a fifth invasion took place March 16 in the northwest area of unincorporated Fayette County, he said. The final act before their arrest was the March 16 armed robbery of a convenience store in unincorporated South Fulton, where an undisclosed amount of cash was stolen, Pace said. A common denominator in each of the home invasions was the age of the residents victimized, said Pace. They were all elderly. And beyond the crimes themselves, the frequency and number of home invasions caused obvious concern, Pace said. The first thing that came to my mind was a community plagued with terrorism, he said. Our department worked non-stop through the nights with Fulton County Police and the Fayette County Sheriffs Office to put a stop to these crimes. The cooperation with these agencies was nothing but good, old-fashioned team work. Acting on information they received, officers found another common denominator that led to the identity of the alleged felons, Pace explained. At least one of the perpetrators had been part of a work crew that had done yard work at each of the home invasion victims residences during the past year, he said. Acting on that information, officers began their attempt to locate Brandy and Ryan Snow. Their attempt paid off March 17 when Fulton County Police Detective M. S. McHugh and Officer C. T. Turner spotted the couple in Fairburn and followed them a short distance into Union City, where they were stopped and taken into custody minutes later without incident. Commenting Monday on the arrests, Pace said both Ryan and Brandy Snow told officers their actions were related to controlled substance addiction. Pace said solving the case and knowing who did it is 90 percent of the effort. Actually catching the individuals known to be a physical threat to others amounts to a small, but dangerous, 10 percent. |
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