'Give Me Your Money or I'll Kill You'

At a news conference outside police headquarters, D.C. officers said they believe the crimes started early Saturday in Northwest when a group of young men carjacked a Mazda 626. The next day, thieves stole a black Jeep Liberty parked near 12th and Varnum streets NE. Police believe that Jeep was used in many crimes that followed.

The next robbery, police believe, took place about 11:45 p.m. Sunday in the 600 block of Fairmont Street NW. The crimes picked up again about 1 p.m. Monday when armed men attempted a carjacking in Mount Rainier, police said.

In the next few minutes, heavily armed men committed three more robberies in the Hyattsville area, pistol-whipping four victims in one of the holdups.

Then, about 1:30 p.m., four assailants, wearing black hoods, stormed a family-run auto parts store, Safe-N-Sound Auto Systems, in Adelphi. One pulled out an assault pistol and pointed it at a salesman, who exchanged a nervous look with his aunt, who also worked in the store, and a customer.

"Drop everything!" the gunman said.

The gunman was talking "through his teeth" as his partners rummaged through the customer's pockets, getting nothing, the salesman said. When the salesman's aunt tried to slip out the back, one of the robbers grabbed her by the back of the neck and slammed her to the floor. The salesman leaned over to help his aunt, and the gunman jammed the pistol in his chest.

"I thought, 'This is it,' " the salesman said. His mind keyed on his four children and what would become of them if he died. "I thought they would definitely kill me," he said of the attackers.

The men left with the salesman's gold chain, which bore a cross worth $2,200, his blue cotton sweater and $470 from his pocket that he was going to spend on car repairs later in the day.

The assailants then apparently moved to the District, where they committed a succession of swift robberies and carjackings, police said.

They stole a wallet and North Face jacket from a man in the 5000 block of South Dakota Avenue NE. Then they stole a tan Chevy Blazer from a Howard University student on the school's campus in the 2400 block of Fourth Street NW.

A few minutes later, they used their vehicles to box in a white Nissan Armada being driven by an off-duty officer with the U.S. Mint Police, authorities said.

When the officer fled the vehicle, the assailants noticed that he had a holster, police said.

"He's the police," one of the men said, according to police reports.

The gunman then fired a single round, which missed the officer. The men quickly moved on to steal a Chevy Tahoe on North Capitol Street NE.

By 3:30 p.m., the assailants were hanging out in a parking lot next to a dormitory at Catholic University in the 600 block of Michigan Avenue NE, police said. After robbing the freshman and his brother, the gunman strode over to the dorm's entrance. He held the assault pistol by his side, the freshman said.

A few minutes earlier, the freshman had called his roommate on his cellphone, asking him to come downstairs and help him carry a television and other heavy items into the dorm. He prayed that his roommate wouldn't come outside.

The roommate came out. He was surprised to see a gun pointed in his face. The robber didn't say a word as he ripped the car keys from the roommate's belt and took a silver chain from his neck. Then the assailants escaped, with at least one of them driving away in the roommate's Volkswagen.

They dumped the car about a mile away on Hawaii Avenue NE, police said.

Police believe the thieves then may have returned to Prince George's to continue the robberies.

Yesterday, some of those who live or attend schools in neighborhoods targeted by the robbers said they were shocked by the brazen crimes.

"It's so scary," said Lauren Treacy, 18, a freshman at Catholic. "I know I have to be careful."

About two miles away, at Howard, where one of the carjackings occurred, freshman Kimberly Williams, 19, was trying to come to terms with the suddenness of it all.

"I wouldn't expect that to happen here in broad daylight," she said.

Staff writer Karlyn Barker, staff researcher Bobbye Pratt and news aide Terence McArdle contributed to this report.