Just two days earlier, police came across a 3-year-old boy lying on the ground at one of southwest Atlanta’s troubled apartment complexes after being struck by a stray bullet. On Wednesday night, officers said they were called back to the same complex for additional gunfire.
It was still “too early to tell” if the shootings this week were connected, police spokesman Officer Anthony Grant said Thursday. He noted that both investigations remain “very active and open.”
Atlanta police responded around 10:30 p.m. to the latest shooting at the Ashley Cascade apartments along Kimberly Way. When officers arrived, they found a man suffering from a gunshot wound to his lower extremity. He was taken to the hospital and is expected to survive.
According to investigators, the victim was shot by a man during an argument. Police said the men, whose identities were not released, appeared to know each other well. No arrests have been made.
On Monday, officers were called to the complex at around 5:30 p.m. and found the 3-year-old shot outside a building. The toddler was alert and was taken to a hospital by ambulance, authorities said.
Investigators said they believe the child, who is expected to survive, was outside when gunfire was heard. It’s not clear from where the shots were fired.
“It could’ve been my grandchildren out here playing,” resident Joya Poole told Channel 2 Action News. “He could’ve died.”
Ashley Cascade apartments, which encompasses both 1381 and 1371 Kimberly Way, is among 272 of the metro area’s persistently dangerous complexes, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s “Dangerous Dwellings” investigation that looked into serious crimes, lax maintenance and other hazards in Atlanta neighborhoods.
Between 2017 and mid-2023, police recorded 248 crimes there. They include three homicides, 44 aggravated assaults, six robberies, a child molestation case and four rapes. In May 2022, a man died there after being shot multiple times. Two months later, a shooting left a woman dead and two others injured.
That same year, Atlanta put the complex on a list of properties to be targeted for crackdowns because of chronic crime and problems with poor living conditions. It is located outside I-285, not far from Niskey Lake.
Police did not release any additional details on the two shootings.
— Please return to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution for updates.
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