ATLANTA – The U.S. Attorney in Atlanta has announced that two men, convicted of engaging in an armed robbery spree in 2018, will each spend more than a decade behind bars.

The two men involved held up employees at gunpoint at seven different businesses over 2 days. U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia Ryan Buchanan described the 2018 crime spree by these two men as ‘terrifying and violent. 

Buchanan says on October 29, 2018, Kujo Duako tried to rob a CVS store in South Fulton but was unsuccessful when the employee ran into the back and triggered a fire alarm.  

He then robbed a Dollar General in South Fulton immediately after. 

The next day, Duako and Sammetrius Brooks robbed five businesses together in four cities.  

“Five separate businesses the following day, so this was a rash of violence,” Buchanan said. 

That spree included an IHOP and Family Dollar in South Fulton, a Sprint cell provider store in Riverdale, a MetroPCS cell provider store in College Park and the United Community Bank branch in Fairburn.   

“People work there, and they go there every day simply to make a living for themselves and for their families. And to have your workday upended by a robber with a pistol is an unfortunate and potentially tragic situation,” Buchanan said.  

That’s why Buchanan was proud to announce Thursday that almost six years later, both of these men pleaded guilty to the multitude of federal charges they faced.  

A judge sentenced Duako to 16 years and Brooks to 11 years.  

Buchanan said it could have been a lot more if they had not pleaded guilty. 

That’s now on top of the ten years they were already serving for convictions in Fulton County.  

“To those who would rob people with guns, we hope you understand that the collaboration of federal and local law enforcement agencies is alive and well and it is swift,” Buchanan said.  

ATLANTA (AP) — The teenage brother of a U.S. Air Force airman who was shot and killed in his home by a Florida sheriff’s deputy in May has been killed in a shooting in the Atlanta area, police said.

Andre Fortson, Senior Airman Roger Fortson’s 16-year-old brother, was killed this week in DeKalb County, near Atlanta’s east side, DeKalb County police said in an update on the slaying.

“The Fortson family is battling the loss of yet another young member of their family,” said civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who has been representing the family since Roger Fortson was killed.

“This has been an incredibly challenging time for them with the loss of Roger,” Crump said in a statement. “Losing the life of yet another young family member — a mere child — has been an absolute devastation.”

READ MORE: Hundreds pack funeral for Roger Fortson, the Black airman killed in his home by a Florida deputy

Andre Fortson was found shot to death in the breezeway of an apartment complex on Tuesday, police said. Two groups of people had been shooting at each other for unknown reasons, DeKalb County police said.

A 20-year-old man was identified as one of the shooters, and arrested on an aggravated assault charge, police said. He was booked into the DeKalb County Jail. Jail records did not list an attorney who could be reached for comment on his behalf.

The killing comes about three months after Roger Fortson, 23, was killed May 3 by Okaloosa County sheriff’s Deputy Eddie Duran at Fortson’s apartment in Fort Walton Beach, Florida. The airman had answered the door while holding a handgun pointed toward the floor and was killed within seconds, body camera video shows.

Okaloosa County Sheriff Eric Aden fired Duran, saying the deputy’s life was never in danger and that he should not have fired his weapon.

READ MORE: Sheriff deputy’s killing of Black airman in Florida renews debate on police killings and race

A sheriff’s office internal affairs investigation found that Fortson “did not make any hostile, attacking movements, and therefore, the former deputy’s use of deadly force was not objectively reasonable.”

The Fortson family is from DeKalb County, where Andre Fortson was killed. At a tearful news conference a couple of weeks after the Florida killing, Andre Fortson stood on the stage with his mother and sisters. They wore red shirts with the words “WE ALL WE GOT” on the front and a picture of Roger Fortson in his military uniform on the back.

Roger Fortson was stationed at the Air Force’s Hurlburt Field in the Florida Panhandle. At his funeral outside Atlanta, hundreds of Air Force members in dress blues filed past his coffin, draped with an American flag.