An investigation is underway Sunday morning after five people were injured in a shooting outside a DeKalb County nightclub.
The gunfire erupted more than a year after city officials discussed plans to limit a rash of gun violence at nightclubs, which saw seven shootings and three people killed over a two weeks period in early 2022. Atlanta Police Public Affairs Director Chata Spikes spoke of a need for collaboration, while other officials looked into ideas like suspending liquor licenses or partnering with businesses to create a security force consisting of mostly off-duty Atlanta police officers.
“When it comes to nightclubs and alcohol-selling establishments, we must take security seriously,” Byron Amos, the District 3 councilmember over Vine City said at the time about the complicated issue. “That includes inside and outside of the business. The parking lot is an extension of your building, of the business itself.”
On Sunday, DeKalb police got a call about a person shot around 3 a.m. at the Cosmopolitan Premier Lounge on Glenwood Road. When officers arrived, they found the five victims who police said were shot outside the nightclub. Their conditions were not released and they have yet to be identified by authorities.
County officials were unavailable for comment Sunday, and the nightclub did not return messages.
In October, a shooting outside Cosmopolitan Premier Lounge left a security guard dead and another injured. Police said the guards had tried to break up a fight at the nightclub and were shot in the parking lot around 2:30 a.m.
Dozens of evidence markers led from the front doors to the back of the lot about 50 yards away. The victim was identified as as Erik McKenzie, 30, of Lithonia by the DeKalb County Medical Examiner’s Office.
This is the third shooting to occur within the past month outside nightclubs in DeKalb and nearby Buckhead, which is in neighboring Fulton County.
On May 19, at around 11:45 p.m., a man was found dead inside a vehicle a few yards away from Club Blaze on Moreland Avenue, DeKalb police spokesman Lt. Shane Smith said at the time. The victim was shot in the parking lot of the nightclub, where Smith said the initial incident began that evening.
Just two days later, two friends were shot outside NRG ATL nightclub on Peachtree Road in Buckhead Village.
According to investigators, the men witnessed a fight and tried to break it up around 2:50 a.m. when the suspect pulled out a handgun and started shooting at them. The victims were alert when they were taken to a hospital.
Early Friday, another shooting in southwest DeKalb County injured a 15-year-old boy. The teenager was found suffering from a gunshot wound on Columbia Drive near a nursery school — and about two miles away from Cosmopolitan. He is expected to survive, police said.
A motive is unclear for the shooting on Sunday, and no details were released by police about a possible suspect.
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