Police: Robbery Suspect Already In Custody

DECATUR, GA -- A man already accused of a downtown Decatur robbery has also been charged in a separate case in which he was confronted by a neighbor while allegedly trying to break into a home.

Vinson Lopez, 44 of Dublin, was charged Wednesday with armed robbery in a January 17 incident in which a Decatur woman stood up to a suspect trying to break into a neighbor’s home, only to be robbed herself.

Lopez had previously been arrested on January 29, for a robbery that happened at Sycamore Square Condominiums.

In the January 17 case, police were called to the 400 block of Willow Lane, in the Medlock subdivision, at about 12:02 a.m.

The victim told them she had just gotten home from work when she saw a suspect trying to open her neighbor’s patio door.

When she asked the suspect who he was and what he was doing, the suspect “brandished a large wrench and attempted to make it appear as if it were a handgun and demanded money.”

The woman cursed at him and told him she didn’t have any money, police said, but the suspect tackled her, taking her cellphone and wallet as they struggled.

On January 29, Lopez was arrested after a robbery at the downtown condominiums.

A woman told police that, at about 1 p.m., she was at the entrance to her garage when the suspect came up behind her and snatched her purse.

The victim, who was not injured, screamed and chased the suspect. Two citizens called police and Lopez was found soon afterward during a traffic stop, reclined in the front passenger seat of a vehicle with the victim’s purse in plain sight, police said.

The vehicle’s driver was detained, but later released without charges.