ATLANTA — Georgia State University hosted a town hall on Monday afternoon following a quadruple shooting over the weekend that injured two students.
A panel of university and community leaders spoke to a group of students, faculty and staff inside Centennial Hall Auditorium regarding the operations and safety improvements happening across the campus. Those on the panel included:
"It's really frustrating because we've worked so hard to try and make those tactical changes to prevent or make the campus more safe," Blake said, referencing the shooting near campus.
He added, "Safety is my number one top priority."
GSU's central campus downtown has close to 35,000 graduate and undergraduate students.
"We're always going to be a city campus -- a uniqueness about the campus that creates challenges when it comes to safety," Blake said.
According to previous reports and GSU Police Chief Anthony Coleman, the shooting injured three women and one man; two were GSU students. Blake said on Monday the two students who were hurt in the incident are expected to recover and will be able to return to campus.
It happened on block 100 of John Wesley Dobbs around 5 a.m., and APD said a large group was gathered there before the shooting.
The shooting escalated from a confrontation between two men near a U-Haul business in the area, police said. Chief Coleman described it as 'unusual,' stating that one of the men approached the other and said something to the effect of 'What's up?' and then seconds later gunshots rang out.
Since another shooting in the same area back in April, Coleman said his agency has stepped up patrols and their presence.
"We are actively patrolling that area and will continue to do that," Chief Coleman said.
He said they've been teaming up with other law enforcement agencies to help crack down on crime on and near their campus.
"We just worked two days in the corridor, and we made about thirty arrests, recovered a stolen vehicle and some stolen guns," Chief Coleman said.
During the town hall, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Jared Abramson reviewed operations and safety improvements their team has been working on for several months.
They launched a new website with what the university has done immediately following several incidents near campus to help improve safety on campus. Abramson also gave insight into what's in store, including the GSU Blueline, which Atlanta's BeltLine inspired.
It's described as "an ambitious framework for safety and placemaking" that will "define the campus and create better, safer connectivity between points on campus such as the greenway, the recently renovated Hurt Park and our campus buildings."
Abramson said they're installing thirty new cameras across campus in addition to the fifty already up and running. They've also ordered Juganu Smart Lighting, incorporating LED lighting, surveillance and AI technology on a single pole.
They've been adding emergency call boxes around campus and tightened up access points into buildings. A couple of students whom 11Alive spoke to on Monday were excited about the things coming to campus.
"I actually really like how they're implementing the new cameras," Anthony Igbokwe, a GSU student, said.
He said he came to the town hall to hear solutions from the leadership team. Another student, Josie Ramirez, said she, for the most part, feels safe around campus but admitted there are areas where these shootings have happened that make her uneasy.
"Just hearing that happened really close to where I go to sleep every night was definitely disheartening," she said.
Ramirez said she's looking forward to increased security measures around campus.
'It's definitely reassuring," she said.