Hall County deputies arrested six people from metro Atlanta in connection with vehicle thefts and a series of entering autos in the Oakwood area. Three of those arrested are juveniles, the Hall County Sheriff’s Office says.
Just before 4 a.m. Wednesday, August 10, deputies responded to Interstate 985 near Exit 16 after a 911 caller reported seeing suspicious activity on the highway.
“When deputies arrived, they found three vehicles stopped on the southbound shoulder of I-985 and the individuals in the area. All of them fled when the deputies activated the lights of their patrol cars in order to divert traffic during the investigation,” says HCSO Public Information Officer B.J. Williams.
Three of them – Malachi Campbell, 17, of Stone Mountain, John Pritchett, 17, of Stone Mountain and a 15-year-old juvenile – were quickly detained. Two others – Marquarius Davis, 17, of Stone Mountain and a 16-year-old juvenile – were arrested a short time later just off the highway at the McDonald’s restaurant on Frontage Road. The sixth suspect, also a 15-year-old juvenile, was arrested a few hours later on Davis Street in Gainesville.
Williams says during initial questioning, Hall County investigators learned the young men had traveled to Hall County in one of the vehicles found stopped on the highway, a Ford Escape later determined to have been stolen from Dekalb County. A Mercury SUV and a Cadillac sedan, also stopped on the highway, had been stolen from residences in the city of Oakwood, according to investigators.
The Oakwood Police Department is investigating the local vehicle thefts and entering auto cases.
At this time, the three adult suspects are in custody in the Hall County Jail; the three juvenile suspects are being held at the Regional Youth Detention Center (RYDC) in Gainesville.
