A Collier Heights man said he was shot by an Atlanta police officer who came to his house on Bolton Road after hearing gunfire.
Neighbors said the man was tired of thieves stealing lawn mowers that had been brought to him for repair. The man, whose name was not released, came out of his house naked and fired several shots at a man he believed had come into his yard to steal from him.
Police said the lawn mower repairman was "alert, conscious and breathing" when he was put into an ambulance to be taken to Grady Memorial Hospital.
An APD spokesman said the man had told a 911 operator he had been shot in the stomach, but police were reluctant to say an officer was responsible.
"It appears the armed man may have been injured – though it is unclear at this time how he was injured," spokesman Carlos Campos said in an email. "The man claims he was shot by the officer."
APD's Office of Professional Standards, also known as internal affairs, is investigating to determine if it was an "office involved shooting," Campos said.
While police say they don't know what prompted the shooting around 1 p.m, neighbors said the man, who ran a mower repair service out of his house, was tired of thieves targeting him.
"I heard him tell them ‘Get out of my yard and quit stealing my stuff,'" said Desmond Brady, who lives next door to the house in the 500 block of Bolton Road, west of downtown Atlanta.
There were two men, one in the front of the house and the other in the back, but the confrontation was between the lawn mower repairman and the would-be thief in the front yard, Brady said.
He "told them twice" to ""get out of my yard,"" Brady said. The stranger in the front yard responded by goading the homeowner, who had just run out of his house naked with a gun in his hand.
The lawn mower repairman then fired twice, missing the man in his yard, according to witnesses. And even then the intruder stayed in the yard, Brady said.
"They just wouldn't leave," Brady said.
Three girls styling each other's hair on the porch of a house in the same block ran inside when they heard gunshots. They looked out a window to see their neighbor, naked, confronting a man in his yard.
According to Atlanta police, an officer who was nearby and heard the shots had a "confrontation" with the man.The man then ran into his house and barricaded himself inside, said Campos.
Hostage negotiators and APD SWAT officers were called when the man ran back into the house, and less than an hour later the man surrendered.
No one else was shot.
While there had been no arrests late Friday afternoon, Campos said the lawn mower repairman "absolutely" could face charges for firing a gun.
Neighbors, meanwhile, defended their neighbor though they didn't know him by name. They said he was friendly and often outside.
Zaria Dixon, 10, who was on the porch with her older sister and a friend when the shots were fired, described him as "quiet."
They said it was common knowledge that thieves frequently targeted him.
"This guy is a good guy," Brady said.
Brady said it was important that people know that.
Staff writer George Mathis contributed to this article.
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