Lookout issued for robbery suspect who has threatened police

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. - DeKalb County police issued a nationwide lookout Wednesday for an armed robbery suspect who they say has threatened officers on social media.

At a Wednesday morning news conference, DeKalb’s Public Safety Director said 24-year-old William McLeod has posted on Instagram and Facebook that he would “go out with a bang” if confronted by police.

Police have issued warrants for McLeod in connection with an armed robbery and battery on September 9, 2015, but they also call him a suspect in additional crimes.

Dr. Alexander said, “We have a lookout for this subject. He very well could be dangerous to police if confronted. Considering the climate we’re in, we’re not taking any chances. That is the gravity of this case.”

The lookout follows a SWAT team call late Tuesday night to the Avondale Forest apartment complex off Mountain Drive.

Officers at the scene said McLeod barricaded himself inside an apartment with 4 children inside.

Officers got 3 of those children out right away. A short time later, police said they realized there was still a 2-year-old in one of the back bedrooms on the apartment. After some negotiation, the toddler walked out the backdoor of the apartment.

SWAT team members fired tear gas into the apartment, but McLeod was not inside.

Dr. Alexander said, “He slipped away from us last night. We were able to get those kids out of the apartment without incident. But today we’re looking for the subject who, as for as we’re concerned, could be potentially dangerous to the law enforcement community.”

The public safety director added McLeod’s family is cooperating.

But the woman who lives in  the apartment tells a different story about what happened.

Terri Miller told FOX 5 police were trying to find her brother Willie, who was wanted on a warrant.  

According to Miller there were five kids in the apartment, ages 7-months, 1, 2, 7 and 8 years-old.

Miller told FOX 5’s Marc Teichner she was at a neighbor’s residence when she  came home and found the officers in front of her apartment.  

Miller says the all of the children, except her 2-year-old son Gabriel, were brought out by police.  

As she tells it, Gabriel wasn't being held by her barricaded brother, but rather was asleep in the back bedroom.  She says when he woke up, the toddler came out of the unit on his own.

Miller is upset that the SWAT team left her unit a mess.

She invited a FOX 5 crew into her apartment where we saw numerous holes in the walls, broken windows, furniture turned over, and clothes thrown on the floor.

Miller called the apartment unlivable and wants police to repair the damage as well as provide her with a place to stay. At the news conference, Dr. Alexander said it would be up to the property management company to deal with her concerns.