A violent weekend has left at least 15 children injured in shooting incidents across Georgia.
It’s the latest wave of gun violence affecting children in recent years, with firearms now considered the No. 1 cause of death for children in the United States, according to a 2022 Kaiser Family Foundation analysis. No fatalities have been reported in this weekend’s Georgia incidents, but the children, including one as young as 5, were sent to hospitals for their injuries.
In the first two shootings, which occurred in Columbus and Brookhaven, a dozen kids were hurt on Friday.
Government and law enforcement leaders across the state — and the country — have sounded the alarm each time a child falls victim to a shooting, and the multiple victims in Columbus reiterated the dangerous trend.
“The rash of gun violence involving our youth is impacting communities across the country,” Columbus police Chief Freddie Blackmon said. “While Columbus is not immune to these incidents, I want to assure citizens that the men and women of CPD are tirelessly working to get violent offenders off our streets. It is going to take a community effort to combat gun violence in our city. The entire village has a responsibility because incidents like this impact all of us.”
In the Columbus case, nine children between the ages of 5 and 17 were shot at a gas station on Warm Springs Road shortly after 10 p.m. following an altercation at a party, police said. The party apparently took place at a warehouse, according to investigators, and the fight spilled over to the gas station where the shots were fired.
The 5-year-old who was injured had been with a family member at the gas station and not at the party, police said. The other victims included a 12-year-old, three 13-year-olds, a 14-year-old, two 15-year-olds and a 17-year-old.
Investigators were not sure on Saturday whether any parents of the teens who attended the party were present at the gas station.
In the Brookhaven incident, also at a gas station — a QuikTrip on Buford Highway — three teens were shot Friday night, according to police. Their ages were not provided, and it was not clear exactly what time the shooting took place.
Only limited details have been released, but police confirmed that they believe those involved were at least familiar with each other before the shooting.
Just a few hours later, by 3:30 a.m. Saturday, another two teenagers were shot, this time near an event space on Lee Street in the Oakland City neighborhood of southwest Atlanta, police said.
The teens, ages 17 and 18, were shot during an argument after a group of people had been asked to leave the venue when the business closed for the night, investigators confirmed to Channel 2 Action News. A security guard told the news station that someone fired shots after a fight broke out between two groups outside the space.
By later Saturday afternoon, an 8-year-old boy was injured after a man opened fire inside a home near Fayetteville, causing a “projectile” to travel through an interior wall and hit the child, police said.
The man, 29-year-old Spencer Dylan Harris, was arrested and faces an aggravated assault charge and was taken to the Fayette County jail.
Gun violence affecting children isn’t going to be a problem with a simple fix, officials have warned, with many shootings stemming from interpersonal disputes that often take place behind closed doors.
“We’re challenged because we cannot be in every living room, and we can’t be at every slight or indiscretion, every perceived infidelity in a relationship, unpaid bills,” Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum said after recent violence in the city.
What police can do, he said, is use intelligence to target individuals known to be driving most of the crime that often leads to gun violence. That includes arresting those engaged in gang activity and those illegally possessing guns, shutting down drug operations and patrolling areas known for generating violence.
Ultimately, ending gun violence is a “group project,” Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens said following a December shooting that claimed the life of a 14- and 16-year-old.
“It takes every single one of us to counter this plague in our community,” he said. “From city government to our police, to our schools, to clergy, to parents and to young people themselves, we must pledge not to accept this violence as normal and do all that we can to end it.”
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