Atlanta Gunpoint Carjacking Caught on Video
A homeowner was forced to hand over his car keys to gunman.
Oct. 10, 2013— -- An Atlanta-area man is breathing a sigh of relief after a harrowing home-invasion carjacking ordeal that was all caught on video.
Brad Edmonds was at home with a friend Monday night taking out his trash cans when he was approached outside by an armed man demanding his vehicle, Edmonds said.
"I heard a voice saying 'Give me the keys, give me the keys.' so I looked and there was a guy with a gun drawn right at my chest," Edmonds told Atlanta's WSB.
Police are reviewing dramatic surveillance video taken from Edmond's home Monday night. The high-resolution video shows the suspect approach Edmonds with a gun pointed at him. Edmonds said that when the suspect demanded the keys to his 2011 Mercedes.
"I kept looking at the barrel of the gun and I thought, 'This isn't fair,'" Edmonds said. "I thought, 'Wow, is this it? Is this the time?'"
Edmonds said he considered fighting back but decided against it. "I thought about getting my gun, but I might not be here telling the story had I done that," he told WSB.
When Edmonds went inside to retrieve the keys, he told his friend to call 911 and then ducked in a bathroom to make the call himself while the friend pressed the silent button on the house alarm.
The video shows the suspect waiting at the front door with his gun pointed inside the house and checking outside.
Once Edmonds gave the suspect the keys, the video then shows the suspect trying to open the parking gate outside of the victim's home and peel away, slamming into part of the gate. He then moves back and forth and drives into a garbage bin before finally breaking free and fleeing. The entire incident lasted only two minutes, Edmonds said.
The car has since been recovered but police are combing the area searching for the suspect and are offering a reward of $2,000 for information that leads to an arrest. Edmonds said he'd also pitch in $1,000 to the offering. The suspect is described as 18 to 25 years old, about 5-feet-10 and about 130 to 140 pounds, police said.
"I'm not going to stand for it, neither is anybody else," Edmonds said. "We're going to fight them."