Police are searching for three people after a man was shot and had his cellphone taken early Friday at a gas station in southwest Atlanta.
The shooting happened about 2:15 a.m. at the BP on University Avenue, according to an Atlanta police report. The gas station is located next to the now-demolished Wendy’s where Rayshard Brooks was fatally shot by an Atlanta police officer last year.
When police arrived, they noticed a man walking toward the gas station who said he had been shot in the shoulder. The victim, who is in his 40s, told officers he was inside the BP when three young men followed him outside and “exchanged words with him as if they were going to rob him,” according to the report.
The man told police he ran and hid in some bushes after one of the suspects opened fire. One 9 mm shell casing was found in the parking lot next to the man’s Mercedes SUV, according to the report.
The victim told officers he didn’t know the suspects or “why they would want to shoot him,” Atlanta police said. He was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital and is expected to survive.
An employee at the gas station told officers the three men left the scene in a white Mazda sedan, but said the convenience store’s surveillance footage was only accessible during the day, according to the report. Officers also checked the camera at the intersection of Pryor Road and University Avenue but said it was facing the wrong direction and didn’t record the getaway car’s tag number.
The shooting remains under investigation, authorities said.
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