Police trying to determine if robberies in Cockrell Hill and near DISD schools are connected
Police are trying to determine if the armed robbery of a mother outside her home Monday night was the work of the same group who have been robbing Dallas ISD students.
The victim explained how she was surprised while getting out of her car in a Cockrell Hill neighborhood. Her home is not far from some Oak Cliff area schools, where students have been held up recently.
READ MORE: Dallas ISD warns of an increase in robberies near Oak Cliff schools
The victim is a single mother who works a full-time job to provide for her little girl. She had just gotten home around 8 p.m. when four men robbed her at gunpoint. Police are looking to see if this armed robbery is related to similar cases in neighboring Dallas.
Lisa Ramirez is grateful to be alive after what happened Monday night.
“I see the car moving, and I just move like this. And that’s when they stopped right here,” she recalled. “And I looked like what did they want, and that’s when he opened the door and pulled the gun on me.”
Ramirez says the men driving an older model white car grabbed her cell phone and wallet out of her hand. They also took her backpack. The robbers kept demanding the passcodes to her phone and debit card.
“I was dazed,” she said. “I just wanted to get this over with I was just hoping he doesn't shoot me."
The brazen armed robbery took place within a few miles of six armed robberies that took place over a 10-day period in the Oak Cliff neighborhood of Dallas. In those cases, DISD police say four men robbed students from different schools at gunpoint as they were either walking alone or waiting at a bus stop. The robbers demanded cell phones and valuables. One of the victims described the getaway car as a black Chevy Impala.
Ramirez is in the process of replacing her valuables. She was not able to get a good look at the robbers. She says the most important thing is being able to come home to her 4-year-old daughter.
Cockrell Hill PD is checking to see if any neighbors may have caught the incident on surveillance video.
Meanwhile, Dallas ISD PD is offering a reward of up to $5,000 for information leading to an arrest in the student robberies.