ATLANTA — Neighbors in Castleberry Hill are fed up.
They said late-night drag racing, large crowds, and even guns are leaving them in fear.
Callie McConnell and her boyfriend, George Boone, live near the intersection of Peters and Fair streets. They said the drag races have been going on for weeks. On Saturday night, they saw and heard it outside their window.
“We saw a bunch of cars starting to pull up and rev their engines and do burnouts of their tires,” said McConnell.
She took a video showing a car doing donuts in the street surrounded by a huge crowd.
“This lasted probably about 45 minutes to an hour directly in front of where we live,” she said.
Atlanta Police said they responded around 10:30 p.m. Saturday. When they got on the scene, there was a large crowd of people, multiple vehicles, and fireworks. The crowd dispersed when police arrived.
Officers stopped multiple cars, one dirt bike, and seven all-terrain vehicles. APD cited one driver and Georgia State police handled the rest.
But neighbor Jacob Burkhardt said it was the same scene Sunday night in the same place. Another man who lives in that area sent 11Alive’s Chenue Her videos he said he took Sunday night. They back up what Burkhardt described.
“Burnouts, commercial-grade fireworks, there were shells," he said. "They were going within feet of people’s homes, right over our roof.".
Burkhardt said he called Atlanta Police. In that same video taken by a man Sunday night, you can see police later blocking off the street.
These neighbors are desperately asking for help, not wanting things to escalate.
“There’s so many people and it’s like a period of lawlessness that, when stuff happens, it’s such a fiery environment,” said Boone.
“You saw people in the street with guns and you don’t know what they’re going to do. They could start shooting in our homes; they could start shooting in the air,” McConnell added.
“There’s just a lot of potential for things to go wrong. It wouldn’t take much for something bad to happen,” said Burkhardt.
APD said they understand the frustration of these neighbors and they will continue to work out in Castleberry Hill.
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