The man wounded by an Atlanta police officer fired first, said an eyewitness to the incident, which occurred next door as firefighters were battling a house fire in southwest Atlanta.
Unique Bunch, who lives four houses from where the shooting took place, said she was watching firefighters attempt to extinguish the fire on the 1500 block of South Gordon Street.
“I saw previously they were putting out a fire and then a man comes out of his house with a gun and his daughter is behind him, dragging him, trying to get him to stop, and he doesn’t want to stop,” Bunch said.
“So the police officers at this time are all surrounding with their guns and they’re ready and he pushes his daughter off and he fires a round. And after he fires a round, all the officers begin to shoot at him. And then he goes down.”
Capt. Paul Guerrucci of APD’s Homicide Unit said details about who shot first and how many times are still under investigation. Police had not released the names of the man or officers involved as of early Wednesday evening.
The incident started as a call to the Fire Department around 10:40 a.m.
“During the process of their activities, they noticed a subject behind the house that they believed had a weapon,” Guerrucci said.
The subject was confronting a woman. Officers tried to talk to them, Atlanta police spokeswoman Officer Kim Jones said.
“The male began walking toward the officers with what appeared to be a weapon,” Jones said. “The male was given verbal commands to drop the weapon but refused. At some point shots were fired and the suspect was shot.”
The subject was hit several times and transported to Grady Memorial Hospital as a result of the gunshots, Guerrucci said.
The suspect is still alive, police said, and was taken into surgery.
No police officers were injured. However, one firefighter was overcome by heat and was taken to Atlanta Medical Center with non-life threatening injuries, Atlanta Fire Rescue Department spokeswoman Janet Ward said in an emailed statement.
The fire is out at the home, said Battalion Chief Todd Edwards. Edwards said while the department is still investigating what started the fire, they believe that it started somewhere in the rear of the house, probably in the basement.
Edwards also classified the house as a hoarder house, saying there was stuff stacked floor to ceiling in every room.
Staff writer Daniel Wilco contributed to this article.
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