ATLANTA — Friday brought much-needed progress in the police investigation of the mass shooting in NE Atlanta during the July 4 weekend.
The shootings in Atlanta’s Sweet Auburn neighborhood left two dead and 12 injured. Now, police have surveillance video that shows everything, including persons of interest now wanted for questioning in the crime.
“It was chaos,” one witness said Friday, describing the moment when gunfire sprayed through the July Fourth weekend street party on Auburn Avenue.
Atlanta Police released images from the video that show four persons of interest.
Crime Stoppers is offering a reward of up to $2,000 for anonymous tips that may help police find the four men.
A mother told us right after the shootings that she has a message for whomever killed her 21-year-old son, Joshua, in the melee.
“You removed a mother’s heart,” Sherlyn Ingram said. “You removed my heart... And I cannot express the pain that I’m enduring right now."
Photos: Joshua Ingram
Since that weekend, businesses in the Sweet Auburn neighborhood have been fighting to survive the one-two punch of COVID and crime. It was all too much for the popular Sweet Auburn Seafood Restaurant, which is now closed.
The latest crime figures in the neighborhood were not available on Friday night. But the owner of Mangos Caribbean Restaurant, Matthew “True” Nelson, said police have been meeting with business owners and stepping up patrols.
“And they have taken steps to make sure that crime is under control,” he said. “The presence of police out here has increased and the tolerance of stuff that they may have walked away from before, they’re addressing it.”
He said he’s seeing a reduction in crime. Atlanta Police are hoping the public will help lead them to four men they believe were involved in the shootings – and took a mother’s heart.