Atlanta mayor and police brief reporters on mall shooting

(11 Jun 2024)
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ASSOCIATED PRESS
Atlanta - 11 June 2024
1. Med exterior of the Peachtree Center complex
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2. SOUNDBITE (English) Chief Darin Schierbaum, Atlanta Police Department:
"At about 2:17 this afternoon, we started receiving a combination of radio traffic and 9-1-1 calls reporting shots fired inside the Peachtree Center Mall at the food courts. We believe at this time that a 34-year-old suspect armed with a handgun had entered the food court and after a brief altercation with an individual, he shot that individual. And then that perpetrator continued on to shoot other two others who were in the food court, injured a 47-year-old male, from Grayson, Georgia, a 69-year-old female from East Point and a 70-year-old female from Atlanta. After the suspect had shot the three individuals, he was encountering an Atlanta police officer who was off duty, working an extra job officer. This officer was assigned to our zone one precinct on morning watch. That officer engaged him, opened fire, was able while the perpetrator still had the gun and citizens were still seeking safety. Took that perpetrator out of the the mix to be able to injure anyone else."
3. Med exterior of Peachtree Center
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4. SOUNDBITE (English) Mayor Andre Dickens, Atlanta:
"How many more could he have shot, had that extra job officer from Atlanta Police Department not been there? So we thank him. We think his team members would be in there to help assist and to be able to take that individual into custody and to bring safety to everyone else. So we we thank him for being there."
5. Med exterior of Peachtree Center
STORYLINE:
A gunman shot three people at a food court in downtown Atlanta before being shot by a police officer Tuesday afternoon, authorities said.
All four people who were shot at the Peachtree Center food court are expected to survive, including the suspect, according to Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum.
During a news conference, Mayor Andre Dickens praised the responding officer who wounded the gunman.
“Had he not been there, things could have gotten worse,” Dickens said.
Peachtree Center is a complex of office towers and an underground mall within blocks of several hotels servicing Atlanta’s busy convention business.
In the aftermath of the shooting, crowds of people milled around at a nearby intersection, many of them asking each other what had happened. Several blocks of Peachtree Street were blocked off with crime scene tape as police officers and firefighters converged on the scene.
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