Knock on door, then victim collapses

The knocks were loud, desperate. It was 4:30 a.m. at the Ashby at Peachtree Corners Apartments in Norcross.

"She was banging on my door and saying, ‘Please, please help me! I've been shot,'" said a 30-year-old woman who called 911. "I couldn't understand everything she was saying because she was banging so loudly. When I opened the door, she collapsed in my living room."

The neighbor did not want to be identified because the gunman remains at large.Thursday's shooting prompted deployment of the SWAT Team and evacuation of more than a dozen apartments.

The 25-year-old victim was shot in the back. When officers arrived, she told them her boyfriend shot her, according to the neighbor.

"The blood was all over her back, all over her shorts," the neighbor said. "She did not pass out but she got really tired. By the time the ambulance got there, she couldn't talk correctly and she was gasping."

Police said the victim is in stable condition at a local hospital.

The SWAT Team was called after an officer reported seeing movement behind a curtain in the victim's apartment.

"Seeing that somebody had just been shot, they decided to secure the area and call in the SWAT Team," police spokesman Cpl. David Schiralli said. "The SWAT Team arrived, set up a perimeter. Then they entered the apartment, sent in a robot, checked out the entire apartment. No one was inside."

Nearby residents were evacuated. Most were allowed to return to their apartments within a couple hours.

Police, aided by the neighbor's description, continue to search for the shooter. The neighbor said her roommate heard one shot shortly before the victim banged on the door.

Since the victim moved in last month, the neighbor said, she heard the couple argue three times.

"I just hope they find the guy, and I'm just hoping she won't go back to him," the neighbor said.