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Jonesboro car break-in leads to gunfire
A Jonesboro man says he cannot believe a would-be thief opened fire on him.
JONESBORO, Ga. - Police in Clayton County are investigating a car break-in that led to a shooting inside a Jonesboro neighborhood early Tuesday morning.
Residents on Winding Way Lane were awakened by the sound of gunfire when homeowners confronted two people trying to break into their car and the suspects opened fire.
"My son had yelled, ‘Yo!’ and the next thing I know…they just started shooting," homeowner Casaundra Thomas recalled.
Thomas said her son Michael is lucky to be alive after the encounter. Clayton County police said happened just before 3 a.m. when her son heard someone going through his trunk and went outside.
"We both run downstairs armed…it all happened so fast but you know that was probably the most scariest moments ever," she explained.
Video from Thomas’s doorbell camera captured the moments her son ducked for cover as bullets flew in his direction.
"I literally thought that he had gotten hit and he was dead," Thomas said.
A neighbor’s security camera caught the suspects running away. Thomas said just a week after the shooting death of 54-year-old Dean Phillips, a fellow member of her church, who was killed confronting thieves breaking into cars on North Highland Avenue. This situation hit even closer to home.
"They’re not just running away…they’re coming armed with intent clearly to shoot because that’s what they did to my son, which means intent clearly to possibly take a life," she added.
She said she’s concerned to see the violence around car break-ins increasing.
"It’s not worth it…it’s not worth taking somebody’s life or having your life taken for that matter…this has got to stop," Thomas said.
She admitted the car was unlocked, so she and her son are going to be more careful to lock up in the future. Thomas said they also plan to install more cameras and better lighting around their home. She’s asking anyone with information to come forward and give Clayton County police a call.