A woman shot outside Cumberland Mall Monday afternoon died at a local hospital, and her suspected shooter was later found dead of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said this morning.
Violet Lambert, 55, of Atlanta, was shot just before 2:30 p.m. Monday in a parking lot on the west side of the Cobb Parkway mall, according to Cobb County police Sgt. Dana Pierce. Lambert was taken to WellStar Kennestone Hospital, where she died.
“According to witnesses, the male who shot her got into a white van and was last seen leaving the area,” Pierce said in an email. “A short time later, the white van was discovered parked at a residence in East Point.”
He said that after obtaining a search warrant, detectives, assisted by East Point police and a Fulton County SWAT team, entered the home and found 59-year-old Danny Wray Brown of East Point dead of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Pierce had said Monday that the victim apparently knew the alleged shooter, who also allegedly fired shots at a good Samaritan who tried to help the woman, but missed.
Monday's shooting was the second in three days outside a Cobb County mall, though the two incidents are not related. Early Saturday, police were called to a roadway near Town Center at Cobb, where a security guard had been shot to death. His alleged shooter later died of a self-inflicted gunshot, according to police.
About 13 miles away at Cumberland Mall, several witnesses called 911 to report the latest shooting, which happened in the Macy’s parking lot of the mall, located near the intersection of I-75 and I-285.
Monday’s shooting is not the first for the Cumberland Mall parking lot.
In November 2011, a man was shot and killed in the mall's parking lot the day after Thanksgiving. In May 2012, Rosano Wensley Bundel, of Douglasville, was convicted of killing George Tabetando and sentenced to life in prison.
In December 2009, a jewelry store manager was shot multiple times as he got into his vehicle parked at the mall, according to police.
Bobbe Pharr, of Smyrna, said she didn’t see the shooting Monday afternoon, but wasn’t able to leave the mall due to the police activity. Pharr said she was told to leave her car parked in case detectives needed it as evidence. Pharr said the latest shooting may force her to reconsider where she shops.
“Shootings are going in the schools, they’re going on in churches and they’re going on in shopping centers,” Pharr said. “It’s crazy. It’s not even safe to hardly get out and do anything anymore.”
— Photographer Ben Gray contributed to this report.
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