An 83-year-old man was shot by Cobb County police late Tuesday when he refused to drop his gun and continued firing it in a neighborhood along the Chattahoochee River, according to authorities.
The incident happened around 10:15 p.m., and GBI agents were still at the scene collecting evidence early Wednesday morning.
Cobb police said they received multiple 911 calls about a person walking down Columns Drive and discharging a firearm. The area overlooks the river near the Atlanta Country Club Estates and Chattahoochee Plantation communities.
When officers arrived, they encountered the suspect, Thomas Yarborough, near the front door of a home and ordered him repeatedly to drop his weapon, according to the GBI. Yarborough instead fired the gun again, and an officer returned fire, striking him, authorities said.
Officials said the suspect was rushed to Wellstar Kennestone Hospital in critical condition. No officers were injured.
No other details about what led to the incident have been released.
Vickey Bolling, who has lived in the neighborhood for nine years, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that she was sleeping Tuesday when she heard “two small pops.”
“(That’s) not unusual because we live in a valley and sound travels, and I went back to sleep,” she said. “I got up this morning to go to the gym and saw an awful lot of police activity.”
Despite the violence that unfolded there the night before, Bolling said safety isn’t a concern for her.
“Things happen everywhere in the world, absolutely everywhere. I’m not one to live in fear,” she said.
Others expressed more concern. Jogger Christy Cimino, who has lived in the area for three years, told reporters she has always felt safe there going for a run.
“I always tell my friends that live in Midtown, ‘Oh, come right out by the trails! It’s super safe out here,’” she said, so seeing the scene Wednesday was shocking. “It’s scary, you know, to come out to what we thought is a safe area and just — I live right in the area, and I’ve never seen anything like this.”
