GAINESVILLE, Ga. — Gainesville Police were called out around 7:30 a.m. Monday on an abnormal behavior call, after neighbors living near Shades Valley Lane said they saw a man walking the streets and damaging vehicles with a knife in each hand.
A newly released 911 call is offering fresh insight into what may have led up to the situation.
The caller said she’s the suspect’s mother.
"My son, he's paranoid schizophrenic, and he's walking around in the parking lot with two knives and stuff and talking about killing people," the caller said.
Ben Hall lives at the back of the subdivision and said the suspect was yelling for people to kill him.
"It was scary. I was thinking, what is he going to do next?" Hall recalled.
Police said at one point the suspect’s 8-year-old child ran out and was walking with him, as he damaged cars, like a Statham Police cruiser parked in Anthony Costantini's driveway.
"He kicked the mirror off and left scratches on my patrol car," Constantini said.
Wyatt Sladek said he saw the suspect as he was leaving for work.
"This guy walking with a kid, he had two knives in his hands, steak knives, and he ran out to my car and told me to go around," Sladek said.
Police said a resident confronted the suspect and shot him after he chased after two medics in the neighborhood with knives.
The EMTs were transporting a man who lived at the house to a dialysis treatment when one of the medics ran into the house for safety.
We talked to that resident’s stepmother.
"They got into an altercation and then they both went down on the pavement," she said.
The suspect was taken to the hospital in critical condition.
The man who shot him was also hurt but is expected to be okay.
"You do what you do to protect you and yours," the stepmother said.
Gainesville Police said this investigation is still ongoing and as of now, only the man with the knives is facing any charges.
Police said the suspect with the knives is facing: criminal attempt to commit murder, obstruction of EMT, possession of a knife during a crime, and aggravated assault.