As passengers on a MARTA Gold Line train made their way south toward the East Point station Sunday, an argument turned violent when a gunman opened fire.
One man was shot in the chest and another was grazed by a stray bullet, officials said.
Bystanders crouched on the floor of the train, according to a video clip of the incident posted to social media. When the doors opened at the station just after the shooting around 4:30 p.m., the gunman fled.
MARTA police have been searching for him ever since.
Chief Scott Kreher said in an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution he is confident they will find him.
“We do have pictures of the suspect, and we are actively engaged,” Kreher said Monday morning. “So I do feel confident that we’ll have him in custody, but as of right now, we do not.”
After interviewing witnesses from the train, investigators believe the incident started as an attempted robbery when the shooter tried to take something out of another passenger’s bag, officials said.
The passenger confronted the man and got into a verbal argument, Kreher said. The man then pulled out a gun and shot the passenger in the chest, and another man was grazed by a bullet that ricocheted in the train car, Kreher said.
Both victims survived.
The man shot in the chest was taken to the hospital and is now stable. He had not been interviewed by police as of Monday morning because he had been sedated, Kreher said. It’s unclear if the man knew the shooter.
The victim grazed by the bullet refused help from emergency medical service crews and left the scene. Kreher said he spoke to the man Monday morning and said he is doing well.
Shooting incidents, although somewhat rare, damage MARTA’s reputation. In the first three months of 2025, there were four robberies, equal to the comparable time period a year earlier. Overall, serious crimes were down about 35%, Kreher said.
“It’s a battle that we face: the perception of crime versus the reality of crime,” he said.
The number of robberies on MARTA property (34) increased last year after several years of decline. The number of calls for police assistance, meanwhile, has stayed about the same, with MARTA police averaging 384 per day this year compared to 351 in 2024.
To discourage criminals and help the public feel safer, the transit agency’s uniformed and undercover officers patrol the stations and trains. A robust camera system and Real Time Crime Center helps investigators track bad actors.
Police are making more arrests and issuing more suspensions, Kreher said in a recent MARTA board meeting. MARTA police made 142% more arrests in the first three months of 2025 than in the same period in 2024, according to data Kreher shared with the board. Police issued 85% more suspensions.
“MARTA is safe,” Kreher said. “There are people out there that go toward gun violence versus mediating conflict, and we still, as a society, have to deal with that. That’s not a MARTA problem; that’s a nation problem.”
Passengers can legally carry guns onto MARTA transit under Georgia’s conceal carry laws, which presents a challenge for officers, Kreher said.
Doug Nagy, a former Atlanta Department of Transportation official and regular transit rider, still took the train to work Monday morning despite Sunday’s incident. But more police would help passengers feel safer, he said.
“Riding MARTA is much safer than driving in a car, but it needs to be made to feel safe by more police presence,” Nagy said. “I’m always trying to get more people to ride MARTA, and one of the most common reasons people cite for not riding MARTA is feeling safe.”
The MARTA police force is smaller than it was in 2019. A return to pre-COVID levels, Nagy said, would greatly improve the public’s perception.
But ridership is also lower than pre-pandemic levels, Kreher pointed out.
MARTA had 231 sworn police officers as of Friday, a spokesperson said. An additional 46 positions are vacant, for a total of 277. The proposed budget eliminates nine of those vacant positions. It also calls for a 15% raise for officers, which Kreher said would help with recruitment.
“It helps when you can see a police officer standing on every single train car,” he said. “But that’s not the reality. We can’t staff MARTA that way.”
Officers patrolling on trains also can’t easily get from one car to the next, Kreher said. If police had been on the train during Sunday’s shooting but were two cars behind the scene, they likely wouldn’t have been able to prevent the incident.
On new train cars being introduced next year, passengers will be able to move from car to car, which means one officer will be able to patrol one train, Kreher said, calling it “a huge advantage.”
— Please return to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution for updates.
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