A comment made to a woman at a Midtown nightclub early Saturday may have led to a shooting that left a Peachtree City man dead, according to the club’s owner.

Atlanta police continued to investigate the fatal shooting near the QUAD nightclub in the 600 block of Spring Street. The Fulton County medical examiner’s office identified the victim as Morie Brooks, 24, who was shot once in the back.

Brooks body was found in the parking lot of the nearby Varsity restaurant.

QUAD owner Rick Day, in a statement emailed to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, said the shooting stemmed from an argument between two groups inside the club that later escalated.

“According to witnesses and videotape, two groups of people at a party held at QUAD got into an argument over a comment made to a woman, which then escalated outside,” Day said in his email. “One group including the perpetrator headed North up Spring towards Arby’s and the other group headed south toward Concentra.” The urgent care center is located on Spring Street.

“When the victim, his friends and brother were in the Lanier [parking] lot next to Concentra at 688 Spring, a further altercation developed resulting in the death of the victim, who died in his brothers arms,” Day said.

Day said security cameras “clearly show the perpetrator flashing gang signs and making gestures of hostility.”

He identified the shooter as a black man in his 20s with dreadlocks and wearing a pea jacket. Three other men in the group also were black and in their 20s, the owner said. They and the driver, possibly wearing a plaid shirt, left in a late-2000 model green Toyota Camry, Day told police.

“QUAD security clearly remembers the suspect because the suspect had $4,000 in cash on him when searched for weapons,” Day said in his email to the AJC. “The security officer admonished the suspect to be careful flashing cash.” Day said the man bragged he had a gun in his car and was confident he would not be accosted.”

Police said they were continuing to investigate the killing.

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