Teens use pepper spray on women in uptown robbery, police say

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Police have charged two teenagers with robbing three women as they walked home from a bar in uptown Charlotte early Thursday morning.

Officers used a stolen cellphone and surveillance cameras to track Deandre Alexander, 18, and Deandre Hopkins, 17, and they arrested them near Romare Bearden Park, several blocks from where the robbery happened.

“They used (pepper spray) to spray at (the victims) and pushed one of them down, and then one of the other suspects produced a handgun,” Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department Detective Josh Gibson said.

The women saw Alexander and Hopkins following them but did not call for help until it was too late, Gibson said.

Police recovered some of the stolen property on the suspects and said the victims later identified them as the attackers.

Williams and Hopkins have both been arrested several times before and have their first appearances in the case that is set for Monday.

Cox Media Group