Two men were taken to a hospital after a shootout erupted in a busy southwest Atlanta shopping center Thursday, authorities said.
Officers found one victim with a gunshot wound to the abdomen in the 2300 block of Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, and another man shot about a block away around 1:45 p.m., police spokeswoman TaSheena Brown said. Both men are stable.
Police told Channel 2 Action News the shootout began when two groups of men ran into each other at the MLK Food Mart after fighting elsewhere.
“I’m glad I wasn’t here a second earlier,” Alan Stillwell told Channel 2.
Witnesses told the news station they heard multiple shots. Police found 21 bullet casings in the parking lot.
“I sped on into this parking lot trying to hurry up and get inside of my store,” Sheteria Webb told Channel 2.
Webb owns Terri’s Cafe, one of the businesses in the plaza. She told the news station the pandemic has made it difficult to keep her store open, and Thursday’s incident won’t make it any easier.
“If I’m coming in as a business owner and it startled me coming in to hear a range of bullets going off, I can only imagine how my customers would feel,” she told Channel 2.
Police said one man was detained for questioning, and authorities are continuing to investigate the incident.
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