Shots rang out outside a southwest Atlanta church Tuesday, just as the pastor was preparing to begin funeral services for a young woman believed killed by gun violence.
Even hours later, the circumstances surrounding the shooting — and what, if any, connection it had to the death of the woman being memorialized inside — remained murky.
According to Atlanta police spokeswoman Kim Jones, an off-duty officer was at the Workhouse of Faith Missionary Baptist Church on Pryor Street late Tuesday morning to attend the funeral of Tiffany L. Bailey, a 24-year-old woman shot in the head Nov. 7 at an apartment on Cleveland Avenue SW. Bailey died at Grady Memorial Hospital two days later.
Around 11:50 a.m. Tuesday, the off-duty officer flagged down a passing officer outside the church and asked him to “escort” a man who “wanted to turn himself into the homicide unit for the circumstances surrounding Ms. Bailey’s death.” Jones said in an emailed statement that the officer then left, but it was unclear if the man was taken into custody.
A few minutes later, two additional officers working near the church heard gunshots.
Funeral-goers told the officers that two cars had driven by before passengers in one vehicle fired several times in the direction of the church.
No one was struck.
One suspect was detained, police said, but no further information was released. Requests for clarification on several aspects of the incident went unanswered.
“This is an ongoing investigation,” Jones said.
Witness Eddie Holt, meanwhile, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that one group of men “got in a fight” with “some people they thought were involved” in Bailey’s death.
“We’ve got to a bad condition when they would come to a church of God and shoot like they were shooting,” Holt said.
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