Three dead, one critically wounded in DeKalb shooting and standoff

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By Mike Morris and John Spink

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Three people are dead and a fourth critically wounded after an early-morning shooting and SWAT standoff in a south DeKalb County neighborhood.

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John Spink, jspink@ajc.com DeKalb police blocked several streets near Gresham Road and Tally Ho Drive before dawn Friday, May 6, 2011.

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DeKalb police spokeswoman Mekka Parish told the AJC that the incident began around 4:30 a.m. Friday when gunfire broke out during a street argument on Tally Ho Drive off Gresham Road.

Two people were shot and killed, and a man involved in that shooting then ran to a home on nearby Cloverleaf Drive, where he shot two more people -- killing one of them -- before barricading himself inside the house, Parish said.

Just after 7 a.m., the DeKalb SWAT team entered the home and the suspect "surrendered peacefully," Parish said. Inside the home, police found the third and fourth shooting victims, one dead and the other critically wounded.

Parish said all of the victims are adult males.

“We do believe that all individuals involved were known to each other,” Parish said.

“As far as we know, there was some argument that took place with all of the individuals involved,” she said. “When that argument took place, what it was about, we do not know. We do know the end result is that four people have been shot.”

Parish said police fired no shots during the incident. Investigators were still trying to determine if shots were fired by any of the victims, Parish said.

Roxie Morris lives across the street from the house where the gunman was holed up.

She said police “woke us up about 4:30 to evacuate the premises. They said there was a hostage situation going on across the street. I got the kids up and they escorted us down the street.”

She said her neighbors across the street were “good people” who were “very friendly.”

Morris said she has lived in the neighborhood for nearly three years. “This is just not a neighborhood [violence] happens in,” she said.

“For people to be actually dead and seriously injured is real shocking,” Morris said. “They’ve been bringing bodies down all morning.”