A man who police said may have been suffering a mental health crisis as he used knives to threaten multiple people in a Gainesville neighborhood Monday morning was critically injured when he was shot by a neighbor.
Officers were called to the New Holland Springs townhouse village in Hall County around 7:30 a.m. after getting reports of a man behaving abnormally, Gainesville police said on social media. The caller told police a man who seemed to be suffering a mental health crisis was running through the neighborhood, causing damage and threatening people.
Before officers arrived, the man used knives to threaten two emergency medical workers who were trying to load a patient into an ambulance on Shades Valley Lane, police said. Authorities did not say if the medical call was related to the man making the threats.
As the knife-wielding man threatened the medical workers, another citizen shot him multiple times, according to police. The man was taken to Northeast Georgia Medical Center in critical condition, police said, and two other people suffered minor injuries.
A resident of the neighborhood, who asked not to be identified, told Channel 2 Action News the shooter was her stepson and a military veteran.
“It’s not what he planned to do this morning, but when someone comes at you, and it’s between you and them, his military training kicked in,” she told the news station.
The investigation remains active, according to police. Officials have not shared the identities of anyone involved and have not responded to questions about the circumstances around the shooting.
— Please return to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution for updates.
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