The term “war zone” is overused. But when an undetermined number of gunmen exchange at least 64 shots on a popular city street — and one is using an AK-47 assault rifle! — then that description seems apt.
This was the case recently in Midtown, where several enthusiasts of Second Amendment rights stood their ground and defended themselves as scores of terrified passersby dove for cover.
Fortunately, they were either bad shots or not committed to their endeavor, so no one was hit. Nearly 20 vehicles did have to visit body shops for patch jobs, however.
In the absence of bloodshed, the story quickly died in the news. With no bodies on the street or in the hospital, with no known motives or participants, with few eyewitnesses who are saying much, police are left scratching their heads, investigating and hoping that something breaks.
The gun battle took place near 13th Street and Crescent Avenue, late on a Thursday night, Oct. 6. The area, just south of some fancy hotels and condos, has become a popular nightspot in the decade since the lights were turned off in Buckhead.
James Keaton Maxwell, who lives across the street from the site of the shooting, called the nightlife scene of restaurants, clubs and taverns a “melting pot” of young and old, black and white.
“It’s got something for everybody,” he said.
The police department’s running theory of the trouble has to do with an event across the street at the Sutra Lounge, with an up-and-coming Atlanta rapper named 21 Savage performing.
Atlanta police Maj. Scott Kreher emailed residents and City Council members saying, “I have had three separate incidents at separate locations in Zone 5 surrounding a rapper called ‘21 Savage’ this year. This person was playing at Sutra Lounge the night of the shooting. All three incidents resulted in large crowds and crime.”
An online video from July shows old 21 across the street at Opera nightclub jumping off the stage to mix it up with rival crews until the cops cleared the place out. The back story of the former Shayaa Joseph of Decatur is familiar for the genre: He has told interviewers he got booted from middle school for bringing a gun to class and says he was shot six times. It's not the nine times that 50 Cent was shot. But it is impressive in a macabre, street rap kinda way. He is, as you might suspect, all about keeping it real.
My guess is a wing of his fan base is also about keeping it real, although it’s fortunate they are not real good shots.
I sent a message to Mr. 21 but have heard nothing, nor have I heard anything from the lounge.
The fight started in a surface parking lot and then surged into an adjoining parking deck. Bullets flew in every direction. The squat two-story apartment building across the street got hit. The Four Seasons and Marriott hotels on 14th Street took shots, as did the Mayfair Renaissance, a fancy condominium complex some 1,000 feet off as the bullet flies. In fact, a slug went through three walls at a 16th-floor Mayfair condo before striking a water pipe, which then flooded 16 floors of apartments.
Witnesses initially heard a few shots followed by the rapid staccato of an AK-47. One hotel guest in bed described the sound as a roll suitcase being pulled over rough cement. There was silence and then a bunch more shots from the handgun contingent. Police won’t say how many there were and probably aren’t sure.
A man found hiding behind a car was detained because an AK-47 was found near him in some bushes. But he was released.
More than one person told me this is a nice area and “this kind of thing doesn’t happen here.”
But it does. Other residents complain that shots at night are not uncommon. Three years ago police shot a man engaged in a gunfight in pretty much that same location.
The incident comes a year after Midtown residents grilled Mayor Kasim Reed and police brass in a backyard event after the neighborhood was terrorized by several brazen and scary armed robberies on the street. Such crimes have largely subsided in Midtown. Reed quickly put out a statement to say this will not be tolerated and that crime is down in Midtown.
But shootings are up 11 percent this year in Atlanta and the number of people being shot, 396 as of Sept. 24, indicates not all gunmen are bad shots. In fact, murders are up 25 percent and will likely again top 100.
Moreover, the sudden sound of rapid gunfire has now been hardwired into our collective nervous system to quickly bring us to terror mode as we worry some untold slaughter is unfolding.
Maxwell, the resident across the street, said he initially assumed Atlanta was having its own Orlando.
Residents again are beginning to make noise that nightclubs are a nuisance and bring about crime, a story line that changed Buckhead, largely because the city could not afford such mayhem on such valuable real estate.
It portends to happen again.
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