ATLANTA — A shooting downtown where 5 teens were hurt is raising concerns about public safety, in an area that draws people nearly every weekend for conferences, concerts, sporting events, and festivals.
The shooting happened just before 10 p.m. Saturday, when thousands of teens were downtown for both a prom and the Distributive Education Clubs of America (DECA) youth leadership convention.
“We were actually about to walk through the park and they made us turn back," Mikayla Guliano said, a high school senior in town for the DECA convention, held at the Georgia World Congress Center.
Guiliano and her friend Annalise Eubanks found themselves at the wrong place and the wrong time Saturday night, as shots were fired outside the Waffle House across from Centennial Olympic Park.
"We were walking back from the convention, and left a little early," Eubanks recalled. "As we were walking, we heard the shots and then they told us to go back."
Five teens ranging from 15 to 19 years old were shot.
"That's very scary... that could have been us if we were like a little bit closer," Eubanks said.
More precautions were implemented Monday for the thousands of students staying downtown for the DECA convention.
"They actually made it safer for the convention now we have shuttles and stuff like that, but there's still a bit of paranoia," Guliano said.
“We were allowed out during the night," Eubanks added, "But now our teacher wants us to stay inside."
Newnan High School’s prom was also downtown that night, according to mom Stephanie Zysk, who posted to Facebook that a stray bullet hit her daughter’s prom bus.
“I'm one of those concerned parents. My daughter's prom is next weekend at one of the hotels,” said Atlanta Police Captain Antonio Clay, who works in Zone 5, which includes downtown. "I understand the concerns, but we are out here. We are visible. Overall, downtown is safe. We do have those one-off incidents and we’ll add extra patrols in that area.”
Four months into 2022, there have been eight homicides reported downtown, as many as in the entirety of 2021.
“Those murders are concerning, all murders are concerning for me whether it's one or eight," Captain Clay said. "Most of them were targeted at people... who just didn't have conflict resolution. Our homicide unit does a great job. Out of those eight, I think we have at least arrest warrants for six of them.”
However, there is some good news: other crime is trending down. According to Atlanta Police report records, so far in 2021, the following crimes have been reported in Downtown Atlanta:
- 14 aggravated assaults
- 18 drug violations
- 4 cars stolen
- 2 homicides
- 3 pursue snatches
- 4 robberies
- 21 simple assaults
- 55 car break-ins
While there have been dozens of assaults downtown in the first four months of 2022, it’s still on track to be less than what we saw last year.
“We have force multipliers and visibility," Captain Clay said. "Our efforts are working."
Part of those efforts is the utilization of other departments to respond to crimes faster.
APD said they’ve partnered with Congress Center Police and Marta Police, as well as the police departments of Georgia State and Georgia Tech. So, if and when something happens downtown multiple agencies are trained to respond as soon as possible.
Captain Clay said that's what happened Saturday night outside the Waffle House downtown.
Georgia State University officers were on hand right away to assist Atlanta Police.
Luckily, the five teens who were shot are in stable condition.
Atlanta Police also recently launched a program called Connect Atlanta. They’re asking residents and businesses downtown to let them know if they have security cameras, so police can better know exactly where they might be able to pull video evidence.
It does not give police access to those cameras, but rather gives them the chance to reach out to home and business owners if they have a camera registered near where a crime happened.
You can learn more and register your camera online here.