MOULTRIE, Ga. — A group of armed and masked robbers grabbed cash from a store safe and from employees they kept in terror during a Friday night hold-up of a Moultrie business.

The group of as many as five, all described as black males, struck at about 11:45 p.m. at Dollar General on Camilla Highway, according to Moultrie police.

In an unrelated incident, police have identified a suspect of an Oct. 10 robbery of the downtown Moultrie Subway restaurant. Police are asking for the public’s help in catching the armed group and in locating the Subway suspect.

“They took two employees, held them against their will while they robbed the store,” Moultrie Police Department Sgt. Justin Lindsay said of the Friday night hold-up. “An undetermined amount of money was taken from the safe and employees.”

The employees were uninjured, he said.

Lindsay asked that anyone with information about that robbery notify police. Members of the public can provide information by calling the police department’s tip line at (229) 890-5449.

Lindsay said it would be hard to not speculate that the perpetrators in the Friday night hold-up could be the same ones who have been involved in about 10 robberies over the past year. The victims were predominantly Hispanic male farm workers. The perpetrators have been anywhere from two to six gunmen. In most of those robberies the assailants selected men who were outside their residences, but on Oct. 9 they kicked in one man’s door before forcing him to go next door where another five men were living, taking all of their money at the second house.

Two of the victims in the series of hold-ups have received minor gunshot wounds. In some of the other robberies a gunman fired shots and in a number of them pistol-whipped some of the victims.

The Colquitt County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the earlier robberies because they happened outside Moultrie. Police fear that victims may be seriously injured or killed if these types of incidents continue.

“We need the community’s help,” Lindsay said. “No matter how small they think the information is, it could be huge to us.”

Police also are asking for the public’s help in locating Leo Jeroid Hightower. Police have an arrest warrant for the 32-year-old Moultrie man on a charge of armed robbery.

Anyone with information can call the tip line number or, if they have suspects in their sight, dial 911 to summon a patrol officer.

Hightower is accused of walking into the 100 W. Central Ave. Subway at about 7:15 on Oct. 10, handing the clerk a letter demanding money and threatening to harm an employee if she did not hand over the money.