Please hold: 4 Atlanta college students say call to 911 during carjacking never got through

911 call for help during carjacking put on hold

ATLANTA — Four college students said Monday that they were put on hold when they tried to call 911 for help when they were carjacked at gunpoint near campus.

The gunmen on Sunday night forced two of the students into the trunk of a Buick LaCrosse, while the other two were in the back seat, the four said at a news conference at Morehouse College in Atlanta. One of the two in the trunk tried to place call after call to 911, but couldn’t get through, he said.

Instead they called Morehouse campus police who sent help.

Police dispatcher Karen Wells said the students seemed calm and were whispering. On the dispatch tape, one of them said, “please hurry, they said they are going to kill us.”

The four students spoke with reporters but asked that their names not be used because one of their assailants was still on the loose.

Morehouse police Chief Vernon Worthy confirmed the four were carjacked near campus. Three go to Morehouse, the fourth to American InterContinental University, which is also in Atlanta.

The gunmen were taking the four to an ATM to get money from their bank accounts, Worthy said.

Wells directed officers from Morehouse and other Atlanta University Center campuses to a bank where police found the victims and arrested two of the three suspects.

Atlanta police had no immediate comment on why the men were put on hold.

Information from: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, www.ajc.com

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