ATLANTA — Several people were injured in two separate shootings within a matter of hours in Atlanta early Sunday, including eight young victims in an apparent drive-by shooting at a gas station.
The incidents come as city leaders and law enforcement continue to grapple with the ongoing rise in violent crime and seek to find ways to curb the often deadly trend.
Eight people under the age of 22 were injured in what police say was a drive-by shooting at a Northside Drive gas station around 1 a.m. Sunday.
A patrolling officer was flagged down by a driver who said four people had been shot in the parking lot of a Shell gas station at 1695 Northside Drive, police said in a news release. Police initially knew of four victims who had been shot while inside a vehicle. Officers escorted that vehicle to a hospital, and two more gunshot victims arrived shortly after. Those six victims were described as being stable.
Officers then learned that two additional victims were in critical condition at another hospital.
Investigators believe the victims — six women and girls, ages 16 to 21, and two men, ages 18 and 21 — were gathered in the gas station’s parking lot when they were shot by unknown suspects. No other details were released.
In the hours following the shooting, officers were seen tediously combing through evidence at the scene. Multiple bullets had pierced the glass of the gas station’s convenience store, leaving window panes completely shattered.
People who live nearby told Channel 2 Action News that there were nearly 30 gunshots.
Less than five hours later, around 5:40 a.m., police got a call about a person being shot at the Villages At Castleberry Hill apartment complex on the 300 block of McDaniel Street, according to a second news release. There, officers found two women and one girl with gunshot wounds.
The victims were all described as stable and were taken to a hospital.
The preliminary investigation found that all three victims were inside the home when the shooting took place, police said. One of the victims had been in a domestic dispute with a male suspect who was then forced to leave. But once he was outside, he fired several shots into the home, striking the victims, the release stated.
Police did not release any other details about the victims, including their ages, or the suspect.
Sunday morning’s shootings capped an already violent weekend for the city. Between 11 p.m. Friday and 8 p.m. Saturday, four other people were shot in separate incidents, including a 16-year-old and 17-year-old.
The 17-year-old died. He was shot during a dispute that escalated to gunfire Saturday evening at a Glenrose Heights apartment complex on Mount Zion Road, police said.
The 16-year-old was shot in the 1900 block of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard while walking to a gas station at 3 a.m. Saturday. No information about a suspect or motive was provided.
“Gun violence is out of control and we’re going to put an end to it here in Atlanta,” Mayor Andre Dickens said during a news conference in January after the fatal shooting of a 6-month-old boy. The police department is working to hire more officers and increase visibility, particularly outside bars and nightclubs where shootings are common.
Since taking office in January, Dickens has made public safety his top priority and launched multiple initiatives in an effort to reduce violent crime, including launching a Repeat Offender Tracking Unit, The Atlanta-Journal Constitution previously reported. Fulton County officials also revived the Court Watch program in an effort to increase public engagement with the judicial system and create another layer of accountability by teaching everyday people how to track cases through the courts.
The police department also has beefed up the city’s network of security cameras and has asked residents and business owners to register their surveillance devices with the department. Plans are in the works to install an additional 10,000 streetlights, the city is aiming to hire 250 new officers by the end of the year, and a new mini-precinct recently opened in Buckhead.
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