Two women were carjacked at Quick Zip gas station on Pio Nono Avenue just before midnight Feb. 7. According to a report from the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office, two of the identified victims were Mercer students.
The police report labels the incident as an armed robbery and the weapon as a semi-automatic handgun. The student's car is a 2015 Silver Jeep patriot. The car was discovered abandoned on Thursday morning around 8:40 a.m. on Vineville Avenue.
The three men approached the victims and threatened them with a handgun, demanding they handed over their vehicle. The women immediately complied and the men fled the scene, headed east.
The three male suspects have still not been found.
Carjackings have been on the rise across the U.S. since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, CNN reports.
"The majority of it is young joyriders. They're not keeping the cars. They're jacking cars to commit another crime, typically more serious robberies or shootings, or joyriding around for the sake of social media purpose and street cred," Christopher Herrmann, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said to CNN. "It's a disturbing trend."
If anyone has any information about this armed robbery or any other crimes, please contact the Bibb Country Sheriff’s Office at 478-751-7500 or Macon Regional Crime Stoppers at 1-877-68CRIME.
Henry Keating '24 is a Journalism and History student at Mercer. He has worked at The Cluster as SGA correspondent, State and Local News Editor, Managing Editor and now as the Editor-in-Chief. Henry has held internships at the Macon Newsroom, Macon Telegraph, and Greenville Post and Courier. He enjoys backpacking, rom-coms, pottery and photography.
