ATLANTA — The so-called "Shoot 'Em Up Chevron" gas station in Southeast Atlanta's Lakewood Heights closed last year, after organized efforts from a community fed up with crime there.
"The main way that they were able to do it was through USDA (US Department of Agriculture), because it had 'Buy Food' - and so they were able to get it shut down. And then, from that point, the neighborhood had to come in, we had to go to the hearings," said one community member. "When they see a community mobilize to make change, it really gets a lot of attention."
Last week, we told you about the neighborhood's push for changes to make the station safer. But did it work?
11Alive researched crime statistics from the year before the gas station shut down, and this year. The good news is that numbers from this year seem to show that so far, the improvements have worked.
Atlanta Police numbers show no crimes at that particular address from July 2018 to July 2019. That compares to 12 crimes last year, including aggravated assault and car theft.
Those stats don't account for crimes that aren't reported.
Crime for the Lakewood Heights neighborhood is also down 21 percent overall, although there have been two homicides in the neighborhood at large this year and none occurred there last year.
We cannot say that is entirely due to one gas station making changes to improve its safety.
But for members of the community who worked so hard to fix something they thought was wrong, these numbers may seem like a small victory.