It was a deadly weekend in metro Atlanta.
The first killing shots were fired before sunrise Friday in DeKalb County and the last ones sounded Sunday evening in downtown Atlanta.
Eight separate shootings erupted in Atlanta or Clayton, Cobb or DeKalb counties. In less than 87 hours, seven people were wounded and eight people were killed, all shot by someone they knew, police say. By Monday arrests had been made in five cases.
Only four of the dead victims had been named. Police were still trying to find relatives of the others.
4:30 a.m. Friday – Four people were shot -- three fatally -- by the same person at two DeKalb County locations by the same person, police said.
The first shooting happened during a street argument on Tally Ho Drive and left two men dead. The suspect then went to Cloverleaf Drive and shot two more people, police said.
The suspect barricaded himself in the Cloverleaf house but surrendered to police just after 7 a.m. No names were released Monday because “we’re having some trouble with IDs,” said DeKalb Police spokeswoman Mekka Parish.
The suspect was in jail and the wounded victim was in the hospital Monday.
6:40 p.m. Friday – A robbery attempt during a drug sale near downtown left a man with a gunshot wound in the shoulder, police said.
Four men and a woman were in an SUV at the intersection of West Peachtree and Simpson streets when one of them pulled out a gun to robbed the others, police said. One occupant was shot.
Police said the shooter tried to get out of the SUV but was dragged a short distance before he got away. After a brief police manhunt, three men, including the shooter, and the woman were in custody and charged with armed robbery and several drug offenses. The wounded man was not charged.
9 p.m. Friday – Four men got into an argument at an entrance to Underground Atlanta; one was shot and killed.
As people milled around the sidewalks to the entertainment mall and nearby MARTA Five Points station, at least four shots were fired inside the glass enclosure at the top of the escalator into the mall. Three men disappeared into the crowd and police said they don’t know who they are.
Demons Hambrick, shot in the back, died on the way to the hospital.
4 p.m. Saturday - A 66-year-old man shot his adult son, Cobb County police said, after an argument between the son and his mother over "putting his whites in the laundry." The father joined in and got his handgun to make a point, police said.
He dropped the magazine from the semi-automatic but did not realize there was a bullet in the chamber, police said. The son, whose name was not released, was hospitalized with a gunshot wound to his torso. The father faces an aggravated assault charge.
7:15 p.m. Saturday – Police said the pastor of a southwest Atlanta church shot and wounded a 13-year-old in retaliation for throwing a rock at his car. Alex Williams, of the Mechanicsville Church of God in Christ, pulled out a .38 revolver and shot the teen in the hip after the boy threw a rock through the back window of Williams' car, police said.
Neighbors and members of the congregation say the church and Williams’ house have been vandalized and set afire. The pastor faces aggravated assault charges. The teenager was in stable condition Monday.
8:05 p.m. Saturday – Three men were shot and killed and a fourth critically wounded in a residential area near Morrow, in Clayton County.
Many neighbors on Burton Circle were out when the shots were fired at a house in the 2400 block. Antonio Frye, 30, and Eddie Moore III, 25, both of South Carolina, died in the front yard. Police found two more men shot inside and transported them to the hospital, where Brian Clemons, 39, of Morrow, died early Sunday. Witnesses said a dark sedan was involved but police said it wasn’t a drive-by. Police said they believe the victims and shooters knew each other and more than one weapon was used. There have been no arrests.
11:30 p.m. Saturday - SWAT officers were called to Memorial Drive in Atlanta to look for five men who, police said, got into an argument with two brothers and shot one of them twice in the lower abdomen. The victim was hospitalized Monday and no arrests had been made.
7:45 p.m. Sunday – A man was fatally shot in the chest in downtown Atlanta. An officer patrolling on Peachtree Street was flagged down and told shots had been fired around Mitchell and Forsyth streets, where officers found Michael Hester, 33, dead. Lamarius Jackson, 37, was arrested after he went to Grady Memorial Hospital to be treated for a gunshot wound to the arm. Jackson is charged with murder.
- Alexis Stevens contributed to this story.
About the Author
