DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — DeKalb County Police were called to an apartment complex investigating a domestic violence call they said spilled into the parking lot, and shots were fired.
Officers arrived at the complex around 3:30 p.m., according to a police department's release. 11Alive Skytracker flew over the Heritage Reserve Apartments on Creste Lane, off of Snapfinger Woods Drive, where the apartment complex and part of a shopping plaza nearby was blocked off.
Police said when they arrived, they saw a man carrying a gun and chasing a woman across the parking lot.
"In an attempt to take the suspect into custody, shots were exchanged," police said in a news release.
"Me and my girl, we heard gunfire, like, ten shots, and got down on the ground and squatted or whatever, and stuff like that," said a resident of the complex who did not want to be identified.
SWAT was called to the scene and officers were able to take the 42-year-old man into custody after four hours, police said, adding that the man was taken to a nearby hospital for a non-life-threatening injury.
At the request of DeKalb Police, the GBI is conducting an independent investigation. In its preliminary findings, the man was armed with a shotgun in the doorway of one of the apartments when he fired at least one shotgun round at officers as they approached him.
According to the GBI, the man fired at least one more round at additional officers who arrived at the apartment. Officers fired their guns, striking the man. He was taken to Grady Hospital where he is in stable condition. No officers were injured, the GBI said. Once the GBI finishes its investigation, it will turn its findings over to the DeKalb County District Attorney's Office for review.
After not being allowed into their apartments for several hours due to a safety precaution, residents are being allowed back in.
Residents are frustrated and angry about routine gun violence in their neighborhood.
"Gunfire is the new norm, out here," said one witness at the complex. "It really is. You don't know where the shots are coming from. They come from here, or that way. Just the usual everyday in the neighborhood."
"It's very frightening that I live so close to such activity," said another resident as she waited at the nearby shopping plaza for police to allow people back in. "It's horrible, you know, that we all can't live together."
Police activity seen at DeKalb apartment complex
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