A sunny Monday evening at Piedmont Park fractured into a scene of confusion and frenzy as about half a dozen gunshots cracked across the basketball courts.
On the tennis courts nearby, players dropped their rackets and lay flat on the ground until the shooting stopped. An eerie quiet fell over typically bustling Midtown Atlanta park, broken moments later by the sound of approaching sirens.
The only known injury was to a woman, described by police as a bystander, who was shot in the hand. She was not involved in an argument on the basketball courts that preceded the sudden gunfire, according to police. A suspect, 18-year-old Artavious Alexander, was detained at the scene and later arrested on multiple charges.
Alexander was being held in the Fulton County Jail on charges of aggravated assault and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony.
Credit: NewsChopper 2
Credit: NewsChopper 2
The shooting brought a bevy of police and emergency vehicles to the city’s premiere park shortly after 6 p.m. The first people to respond, however, were nearby parkgoers, including Dr. Adam Kalwerisky, who trained in emergency medicine at Grady Memorial Hospital.
Kalwerisky had walked by the basketball courts seconds earlier and seen two people arguing, and he rushed back after hearing the gunfire, he told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The incident presented a shocking opportunity to bring his professional training to bear.
”I mean, at Grady I’ve seen every trauma that you can,” he said. “But to be right here is a little bit different.”
Credit: Lautaro Grinspan
Credit: Lautaro Grinspan
Kalwerisky said he found the shooting victim in a “hysterical” state, adding that she was lucky her injury wasn’t much more than a graze wound. Given the tight quarters and the cage-like structure of the basketball courts, he was shocked no one else got shot.
“It’s crazy. I mean, you know, I come out here pretty often,” he said. “People play basketball, there’s arguments and fights. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anybody get to the point of shooting.”
Aaron Walter was riding his bike on the way to tennis practice when the shooting broke out. Like Kalwerisky, he also headed up the steps to the basketball courts to help, but he saw police were already on the scene and the shooting victim was being treated.
“It’s rattled me considerably,” Walter said. “It’s frightening and horrifying because this is a place where I spend a ton of time, and it’s a place where I feel safe.”
Piedmont Park’s sprawling green space, punctuated with ponds, walking paths and playgrounds, serves as a lawn of sorts to Midtown’s glittering residential high-rises and business towers. Crime there is rare, so when incidents happen, they tend to grab the city’s attention.
Earlier this year, a 28-year-old man was shot on a walking path inside the park. And July 28 will mark two years since the grisly killing of 40-year-old Katie Janness and her dog, Bowie, whose bodies were found stabbed multiple times about 100 yards inside the 10th Street entrance.
Janness’ death, which remains unsolved, was the first homicide inside the park in about 12 years and prompted city leaders to bolster safety measures, including new cameras that connect to the Atlanta Police Department’s surveillance network and an effort by the Piedmont Park Conservancy to improve visibility at night.
After roughly seven years of regular tennis practice at Piedmont Park, Walter said he never expected for his exercise habit to put him in danger.
“You can brush off [Janness’ killing] and say, ‘Well, I can avoid that risk by not going to Piedmont Park at night.’ This was on a sunny, beautiful day at 6 p.m. It’s disturbing when people take that peace away from you,” he said. “It makes you remember that we’re in Atlanta. That’s not a good thing.”
— Please return to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution for updates.
