ATLANTA — An argument at a skating rink in Decatur has left an 11-year-old child in the hospital in critical condition Sunday.
Police were called to the Golden Glide Skating Rink at 12:46 a.m. A witness told 11Alive that the incident began with a fight inside the skating rink. Security was called to escort someone out and things escalated in the parking lot.
At one point, someone fired a gunshot into a crowd, injuring the 11-year-old boy.
Public safety expert Dr. Cedric Alexander, who is also a former public safety coordinator for Dekalb County said he used to see incidents like this frequently and they've only increased in number.
"We see these incidents and not just in DeKalb, but we see them throughout any major small, moderate city in this country. This has been an ongoing trend for some time, where gun violence and the display of guns and weaponry that's out there is being used to inflict pain and tragedy upon all the others is really beyond what we could have ever imagined," he said.
Dr. Alexander said there are multiple factors at play when it comes to a rise in gun violence. He said the same is true when just focusing on the instances where an argument escalates into a shooting.
"Someone may have gone to that event with no intent of acting violent at all, but someone could have stepped on their toes, said something to him, some previous conflict where they run into each other again," Dr. Alexander said.
Incidents like this have happened frequently in the Atlanta Metropolitan area. In March, 11Alive reported on another shooting at a Shell gas station in DeKalb County that took place after an argument escalated. In that instance, a person was killed.
"There is this lack that is running rampant across this country, wherein many communities across this country and I don't care what community it is, regardless of the demographic," Dr. Alexander said.
He added that getting to the root of the conflicts and teaching people in the community how to constructively resolve them could lead to a decline in these shootings.
"We need to start having these conversations and they need to be up close and personal with our children, with our loved ones," he said.