ATLANTA — Many people who live in The Solace on Peachtree Apartments, where an officer was shot Wednesday afternoon, came home to chaos and a lot of questions.
One woman, who happens to be a healthcare worker, saw the officer getting carried out and was ready to help. She did not want to be named for safety reasons.
"I saw them carry him out and I told one of the officers, 'Hey, I'm in healthcare, do you need some help before medical gets here?' and they called me over," she said.
The woman, who lives in the apartment complex, was coming home from a grocery run, when she saw the scene around 1:30 p.m.
"It was chaotic. I saw a cop running in and running out, then another cop almost hit me as he pulled up and I heard someone say he's been shot on the face," she said.
That's when she says she stepped in to help the Atlanta officer who was shot on the 8th floor of her building.
"He was shot in his right cheek," she said. "He was alert and oriented. He was able to tell me where he was, what the date was."
She says two minutes later, a fire truck arrived to help the wounded officer.
"It happened very fast and I will say it was very organized," she added. "Patrick, the concierge, heard someone say 'run', heard gunshots, he ran."
Another resident, Haley, whose apartment is near where the shooting happened, was returning home from grabbing lunch with her boyfriend.
"I was shocked. I had no idea," she said. "It just came out of nowhere. I saw somebody bleeding on the ground and saw everyone with their phones out and the cop car. I started asking around and somebody said an officer got shot."
Around that same time, Brandt Lewis was getting home to his apartment across the street.
"They did not let us come anywhere near our building for quite some time," he said. "There has been a lot of helicopter activity above us. It's just relentless."
Residents of the apartment complex where the shooting happened, including the healthcare worker, say they're not surprised this took place in there.
"There was some weird things going on on that floor [8th floor, where the shooting happened]," said Haley, who did not want to use her last name for safety concerns. "Whenever we got on the elevator, it would always be a bunch of random people getting off on that floor, coming in that didn't live there."
"I love where I live, I love my apartment, I love my particular apartment, I love my neighbors - I've got amazing neighbors - but they just move anybody in," said the healthcare worker. "They don't care who they move in."
Meanwhile, their neighbor Brandt says he has started carrying a gun after he fell victim to an attempted dognapping on that same street.
"Several neighborhood associations in this area have told us to be on alert because of a spike of crime in the area," he said. "We took for granted that this kind of thing can happen to any person. If it happens to a police officer it can happen to a citizen."
All three witnesses who were interviewed say they were not allowed back inside their apartment buildings for about five hours. They were let in around 6:30 p.m., after police investigated to make sure the area was secure.