ATLANTA — Atlanta Police are investigating a shooting where they believe at least three teens were shot on Saturday night.
Major D'Andrea Price said at the scene on Saturday that units responded to the area of shots fired in the area of Glenwood Road near Maynard Jackson High School. They arrived to find 15-year-old Diamond Johnson dead of gunshot wounds. The Fulton County Medical Examiner identified the girl Sunday afternoon.
Price said the shooting stemmed from multiple fights between juveniles that police had been breaking up repeatedly in the hours before it happened.
"Extra job units that were out here working in this complex actually broke up the fights," Price said. "Once they started walking towards the Waffle House that's behind me, they heard shots fired."
When asked whether people were inside the Waffle House during the shooting, Price said there were but that no one inside was injured.
The resulting gunfire did, however, kill one girl and injured two other teens who were outside. The conditions of the surviving teens weren't released. However, Price said they were stable.
On Sunday afternoon, investigators with the Atlanta Police Department said there were only three victims, correcting the information from the scene on Saturday night.
The resulting gunfire only appeared to damage one business, Price said.
"There is damage to the Waffle House window behind me where the glass is shattered," she said. "That is the only damaging to any property that I see."
The major added that there is no evidence, at least at this point, that the shooting was gang-related and said, instead, that it appears to be an escalation of previous fights into deadly gunfire.
There are also questions about whether the altercations and gunfire near Maynard Jackson High School may have been related to other reports of violence near Grant Park that had happened previously.
"We are still investigating those facts to find out if that's true," Price said.
Police are still interviewing other juveniles and witnesses to piece together exactly what happened. In the meantime, Price described the night's events as "gutwrenching" and "sad."
"I wish that people would put the guns down," she said. "I wish that there was some type of conflict resolution other than guns."