Four people have been killed after a gunman shot two of his own relatives and a McDonald's worker before turning the gun on himself in Georgia today.
The shootings took place in the small city of Moultrie in rural south Georgia on Thursday, May 4, with the local coroner confirming the deceased to be two of the gunman's relatives, a fast food worker and the gunman himself.
The shooter is said to have killed his own mother and grandmother at two neighbouring homes as well as killing a woman at a McDonald's restaurant in downtown Moultrie, according to Colquitt County Coroner C Verlyn Brock.
Brock did not provide the identities of the shooter or victims, and said he didn't know whether the gunman and the McDonald's worker were known to each other.
The shooter's mother died at the scene after being shot at her own home, while the coroner has also said the grandmother, who lived next door, was taken to hospital where she too died.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigations has only confirmed in there to have been "multiple fatalities" at different crime scenes in the area in a statement.
Police were spotted swarming on the restaurant on Thursday morning, shutting down traffic on one of the main streets in the town with a population of around 15,000.
A woman who worked at an optometrist next door to the McDonald's described how she and a co-worker arrived at work before 8am to find police swarming the area and a woman gunned down in the doorway of the restaurant.
"It was just really scary not knowing if they had shot themselves," Sabina Holweger said. She explained that police blocked off the main street which runs in front of McDonald's and told people at her office they'd be questioned if they crossed the property line into the McDonald's parking lot.
She said the woman who died at the restaurant was the early morning manager and claimed the shooter to have been an employee there.
According to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, the Moultrie Police Department requested their assistance. "We are working to learn more information and track down some additional witnesses," said GBI Special Agent in Charge Jamy Steinberg.
There were two main scenes of activity identified in Moultrie, one at 6th Street Southwest and the other at the McDnald's on 1st Avenue Southeast. The McDonald's worker shot is believed to have been an assistant manager.
Moultrie's City Manager Pete Dillard has said he does not believe there to be a threat to public safety following the incidents. Law enforcement has not confirmed whether there is a connection between the two scenes.
