ATLANTA (AP) — A gunman shot three people at a food court in downtown Atlanta before then getting shot by a police officer Tuesday afternoon, authorities said.
All four people who were shot at the Peachtree Center food court are expected to survive, including the suspect, according to Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum.
During a news conference, Mayor Andre Dickens praised the responding officer who wounded the gunman.
“Had he not been there, things could have gotten worse,” Dickens said.
Peachtree Center is a complex of office towers and an underground mall within blocks of several hotels servicing Atlanta’s busy convention business.
In the aftermath of the shooting, crowds of people milled around at a nearby intersection, many of them asking each other what had happened. Several blocks of Peachtree Street were blocked off with crime scene tape as police officers and firefighters converged on the scene.
Elizabeth Ingram, of Atlanta, was leaving the break room of the Chick-fil-A where she works when she heard the first shots close by.
“We relaxed for a minute and then we heard more shooting,” she said. “So we got right back down.”
Ingram said she saw people wheeled away on gurneys.
“You never know what can happen,” she said. “It just happened out of nowhere. It was so scary my thought was I was never going to make it home to my son and that scared me. My heart was beating so fast.”
