Police search for suspect after shooting on MARTA train at Midtown station
Police are searching for a suspect after a person was shot on a MARTA train stopped at the Midtown station.
MARTA police inside the station reported shots fired on a train on the southbound platform at around 7 p.m., the department said in a statement.
Officers found a person with gunshot wounds to his left arm and leg, police said. He was taken to a local hospital, where he is said to be stable.
“The investigation remains ongoing but this appears to be a targeted incident,” MARTA police said in an email to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
As of 8:45 p.m., police from both MARTA and Atlanta were still searching for the suspect, officials said.
Immediately after the incident, a large number of police gathered at the station. Gloved investigators were seen coming and going from a train stopped at the platform.
Rail service was temporarily suspended for about 90 minutes and bus shuttle service was provided between the North Avenue, Midtown and Arts Center stations.
Normal service resumed around 8:30 p.m. but MARTA told riders to expect lingering delays on the north and south lines, according to posts on X, formerly Twitter.
The shooting Friday evening is the latest in a string of high-profile incidents to happen on MARTA property. The agency has faced criticism in recent days about safety ahead of the upcoming FIFA World Cup.
The Federal Transit Administration launched an investigation into the transit agency earlier this week following a fatal stabbing on a train last weekend.
That attack was random, police have said. The woman killed, 66-year-old Margaret Swan, was on a train at Oakland City when a man approached her, drew a knife and slashed her throat, according to the arrest warrant.
John Elijah Matthews, 25, was arrested and faces federal and state charges for Swan’s death.
Swan was the second person killed on MARTA properties this year. In April, 16-year-old Xavier Wright was fatally shot at the Oakland City bus loop.
The FTA has given MARTA roughly two weeks to submit information on its safety and security policies, budgets and fare evasion policies.
According to federal transit data, violent crimes resulting in injuries that require medical attention or death have happened on MARTA nearly twice as often as the national average.
Serious crimes like that are relatively uncommon, however. An AJC analysis of the federal data found such crimes happen once for every 1.9 million trips on a MARTA train or bus. Across all transit systems nationwide, the rate is about one crime for every 3.5 million trips.
— Freelance photographer Ben Hendren contributed to this report.
About the Author
Sara Gregory covers transportation for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and writes about how residents navigate one of the most congested metros in the country. A Charlotte native, she joined the AJC in 2023 after working at newspapers in South Carolina and Virginia.
