A former state legislator plans to lead a protest Thursday demanding that a southwest Atlanta pawn shop stop selling guns.
The store, North Side Loan, sold a handgun to Nkosi Thandiwe weeks before the 22-year-old security guard allegedly shot three women in Midtown, killing one and leaving another paralyzed.
"We're asking that they not sell guns at this location that is a block from Booker T. Washington High School and backs up to a residential area," Mable Thomas, former state representative for District 55, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The protest will be from 4 to 6 p.m., Thursday, at the store, in the 900 block of Martin Luther King Jr. Drive.
But owners of the store say they have done nothing wrong.
"We don't feel good about what happened," general manager Stephen Dell said, referring to the July 15 shooting incident. "But this man could've bought a gun from anywhere and been approved by the FBI."
Dell said Thandiwe purchased a Glock handgun from the store on June 27.
Around noon on July 15, police say Thandiwe fatally shot Brittney Watts in the neck as they encountered one another in a parking deck at the intersection of Crescent Avenue and 14th Street. Police say he took her car and shot Lauren Garcia in the back and Tiffany Ferenczy in the leg while escaping.
He later hired an attorney and turned himself, and a weapon, in to police. He is being held without bond in the Fulton County Jail.
It remains unclear if the weapon he turned in was the pistol fired in the Midtown incident, and investigators are still waiting for ballistic analysis to match the murder weapon to the one Thandiwe bought from North Side Loans, police said.
Dell outlined steps the store took to make sure Thandiwe's purchase was legal, from doing an FBI background check to requiring that the buyer be 21 years old, three years above the legal age to purchase a gun.
And he pointed to a letter from the City of Atlanta thanking the store's staff for their cooperation in the murder investigation.
"We would like to take this time to extend our sincerest gratitude for your most recent assistance," the July 22 letter says. "We applaud your continued practice of excellent business ethics."
Atlanta police officials noted the letter was neither an endorsement or a condemnation of the store's business practices.
"The letter we sent them was simply an expression of gratitude for the prompt assistance they gave us," spokesman Carlos Campos said.
Thomas, whose district included the Washington High School neighborhood and stretched north into Buckhead, questioned why pawn shops in other neighborhoods don't sell guns.
"The pawn shop on Howell Mill Road and the Wal-Mart on Howell Mill don't sell guns," she said. "Why do you think that is?"
Thomas offered her own answer.
"When you have a company, you pick your product mix based on the demographics of the neighborhood or community you're in," she said. "It comes down to whether or not the community is respected, whether or not the community is organized, and whether or not the community is going to stand for it."
Dell said his family has operated a store in Atlanta for more than 100 years and follows all the laws that govern gun sales.
"I've got 29 pistols and revolvers, and 15 rifles -- and no assault rifles," he said. "I am sensitive to the community. But if we helped the City of Atlanta, I don't know what else to say."
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