A man was shot Tuesday morning when someone sprayed his truck with bullets on a busy southwest Atlanta highway, police said.
Stacey Arbee, 37, was driving a Dodge Ram pickup truck on Ga. 166 when someone in a black vehicle opened fire.
His mother told AJC.com that it was a botched robbery.
Arbee had stopped at a gas station on Campbellton Road about 7 a.m. to fill up his tank before work. He had just started pumping when the black vehicle pulled beside him. Arbee said he could tell he was in danger.
“Two of the guys in the back started putting on their hoods,” he said.
He tried to level with them.
“Fellas, I’ve got kids, I’ve got a job,” Arbee said to the men, two younger guys and a driver about his age. “I ain’t trying to do anything. I already see what y'all up to ... y’all need to find something else to do.”
He got in his truck and hopped on Ga. 166. The black vehicle followed and “just started shooting,” Arbee said.
A bullet hit him in the leg.
Arbee thought about driving to Grady Memorial Hospital, but then he considered Atlanta traffic, got off the highway and called 911.
That’s when he realized he couldn’t stop his truck. The brakes were shot out, too.
“I thought, ‘I got shot, now I’m fixing to have an accident because the brakes don’t work,’” he said. Arbee was able to pull off at a Texaco on Delowe Drive and bring the truck to a stop.
Someone at the gas station bought him a T-shirt to stop the bleeding until Atlanta police arrived about 7:15 a.m.
Monique Burton, Arbee’s fiancee, said rising crime in the area is concerning. Recent robberies at southwest Atlanta businesses make Burton afraid to drive or shop at night.
“In that area, we have been kind of afraid for our lives,” she said.
No arrests have been made in connection with the shooting. Police have no description of the shooter or the vehicle, according to Channel 2 Action News.
The incident remains under investigation, Atlanta police spokesman Officer Jarius Daugherty said.
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