Teenagers playing with guns, an attempted carjacking, arguments — all are circumstances that led to six shootings that left three people dead and four injured across Atlanta this past weekend.
Gun violence in the city, much like in other major cities across the country, has increased in recent years. Atlanta police have been trying to combat the issue, and just last month, then-interim police Chief Darin Schierbaum said the department has had success fighting gang, gun and drug violence this summer.
But two areas in which police don’t have control, officials have said, is when children or adults mishandle firearms and when interpersonal disagreements boil over into violence as more and more people lack conflict-resolution skills.
“We cannot be in every home. We cannot be on every playground where disputes may arise,” Schierbaum said recently.
A deadly shooting Friday night was the result of another argument leading to gunfire, police said.
Officers were called to the 3500 block of Camp Creek Parkway around 10:30 p.m. and found a victim with a single gunshot wound, police said in a statement. Tremeal Mackey, 17, was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital, where he died.
Investigators believe the victim and suspect knew each other and had been in an ongoing dispute, according to a statement. No other details were released.
Just four hours later, around 2:30 a.m. Saturday, officers got a call about a person shot in an attempted carjacking in the 2200 block of Brooks Avenue in northwest Atlanta’s Almond Park neighborhood.
The victim, a woman who was in her SUV at a stop sign, said two men approached her and demanded she give up her vehicle, police said in a statement. They took out a handgun, and she tried to drive away. That’s when the suspects shot at her vehicle, with one of the bullets striking her in the leg.
Police described the victim as being alert when she was taken to a hospital.
Seven hours after that, shortly before 9:30 a.m., a woman was shot to death in the Deerwood neighborhood of southwest Atlanta, police said. She was identified as D’Zondria Walters, 36, and no other details were released about the circumstances of the shooting.
Also on Saturday, police were notified that a 16-year-old had been shot at the Magnolia Park Apartments in the Vine City neighborhood.
Police did not say what time that incident happened, but when officers arrived, they found the teen with a gunshot wound that was not life-threatening, according to a statement. The preliminary investigation revealed that the boy and a sibling were handling the firearm when it went off. The child who discharged the gun was “charged accordingly,” police said. It was not clear what charges the child faces.
Police did not release any other details about the case.
This year, more than two dozen shootings in the city have been accidental or unintentional, according to Schierbaum. Five of those shot were children, he said.
Also on Saturday, a man was fatally shot around 5:30 p.m. near a food mart in southwest Atlanta’s Sylvan Hills neighborhood.
When officers arrived at the Peach Pantry at 1085 Katherwood Drive, they found a man, later identified as 51-year-old Michael Gray, with a gunshot wound. He was rushed to a hospital, where he died. No other details have been released about the victim, the shooting or any possible suspects.
A double shooting was reported Sunday. At about 3 a.m., police were called to the 400 block of Gartrell Street, just outside the Old Fourth Ward, where they found two men with gunshot wounds, according to a statement. Their conditions were not disclosed.
Investigators said the men were walking home with two women when they were approached “by two male and female suspects in a vehicle,” police said in a statement. No other details were released in that case other than this: An argument ensued, leading to gunfire.
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