DeKalb Police Charge Three in Toco Hill Armored Car Guard Killing

DeKalb County police charged three men today in the killing of an armored car guard during an armed robbery in Toco Hill Shopping Center last month. 

The three men are Ashley Henderson, 27, of Atlanta, Stacey Dooley, 34, of Snellville and an unidentified man who remains at large, according to a police statement. All three have been charged with murder, aggravated assault and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

The robbery was one of a string of increasingly aggressive and brazen armored car robberies across the metro Atlanta area, the worst of which occurred in North Druid Hills. Gary Castillo, a 32-year-old guard with Garda Cash Logistics, was shot while leaving the Kroger grocery store with a cash pick-up shortly after noon on March 15. The shooter escaped with an undisclosed amount of cash, and Castillo, a Lawrenceville resident, died later of his injuries at Grady Hospital. 

The FBI , and police charged him in three armed robberies in Gwinnett County where he is currently being held. Quinton Booker, 34, of East Point was also arrested and charged with Dooley in the same Gwinnett robberies, but he has not been charged in connection with the Castillo shooting.

DeKalb County police also charged Dooley, Henderson, Booker and the unidentified man in a second armored car robbery in Redan on Jan. 21. A Loomis Armored guard was servicing a Wells Fargo ATM at 4832 Redan Rd. when he was ambushed and fired upon repeatedly by a suspect, according to a police statement. The guard was taken to the hospital with multiple gunshot wounds. He required surgery, but he survived. In that robbery, the four men have been charged with armed robbery, aggravated assault and possession of a deadly weapon by a convicted felon.

Henderson, Dooley and Booker are being held in Gwinnett County Jail. Henderson had just been parolled this month on a burglary conviction, according to the Georgia Department of Corrections website. He faces three additional charges of armed robbery and conspiracy to commit armed robbery in Gwinnett County.

Several others were also charged Thursday for their roles in the robbery spree. Gwinnett County police charged Edward Thornton, 28, with two counts of armed robbery, but police are still looking for him. He is considered armed and dangerous and anyone with knowledge of Thornton’s whereabouts are asked to call their local police department.

Marietta city police also arrested Veronica Bullard, 32, of Lithia Springs yesterday in association with the robberies. Police said the woman is a former employee of Dunbar Armored, another armored courier service. Gwinnett County detectives plan to charge Bullard with at least one count of party to the crime of armed robbery, according to a press statement.

Calls to Dunbar Armored, which has a location in Norcross, were not immediately returned.

The FBI has been chasing the men responsible for the robberies since Sept. 14 when two men robbed a Garda armored courier while he was servicing an ATM at a Bank of America on Howell Mill Road. Two men struck again in Marietta Oct. 7 when they robbed a courier at gunpoint inside a Mex-America Latino store. 

Another robbery occurred in Buford on Nov. 11, Snellville on Nov. 29 and inside the Mall of Georgia in Gwinnett County on Dec. 7. A second courier was able to fire at one of the robbers who fled the mall through a side door, according to an FBI statement. The Redan Road and Toco Hill Shopping Center robberies followed.

Patch editor Joy L. Woodson contributed to this report.