Two women were robbed at gunpoint Saturday night after leaving a restaurant and bar in Inman Park. It happened at about midnight as the women walked along the 300 block of North Highland Avenue.
The women don't want to be identified because they are fearful of retaliation.
"I think the anxious feeling still hasn't left me and it's terrible because now I'm fearful and you shouldn't feel that way where you live. Out of nowhere this guy, I feel something in my back and it's a gun. He's like, 'Give me your purse,'" said one woman.
"I just turned around and saw him grab her and she freaked out, so I ran over there. I pushed him away and then he grabbed her purse," said her friend.
"He ripped it from me and fired his gun by my head. At that point I fell to the ground," said the woman.
The man got away with her purse, wallet and keys. One woman scraped her arm. Looking back, they're thankful they weren't hurt worse.
"If we wouldn't have fought back and dropped to the ground immediately like we did, we could be dead right now," said the friend.
Residents and businesses contribute to fund the Inman Park security patrol on top of Atlanta police presence. The women are calling for even more security in the busy area.
"They have got to get security, otherwise we will protest. We will stop people from going to those restaurants," said the friend.
Two similar attacks have happened along the same stretch of North Highland since May, although no gun was fired in those. In June, seven people were held up inside North Highland Pub.
"Like John Dillinger, crooks go where the money is. They go where people having money to spend and disposable income," said Atlanta City Councilman Michael Julian Bond.
Bond plans to bring up the latest robbery at next week's public safety meeting.
"Even though the crime stats are down, if you get robbed, it becomes meaningless. So we've got to make sure we've got a police presence in this area," said Bond.
Police said they added bike patrols and road blocks to the area in the past few months and plan to add more patrols as a result of this latest incident.
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