SANDY SPRINGS, Ga. -- Authorities are searching for a suspect in a fatal shooting at a student housing complex behind the Sheraton Hotel on Hammond Drive in Sandy Springs.
It happened Thursday afternoon at the complex, called The Hub, which houses students from the The Art Institute of Atlanta.
Police said 23-year-old Takeenen Williams, of Sandy Springs, was shot two times and ran to the hotel where he collapsed in a back parking lot. He was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital in downtown Atlanta where he died Thursday night.
Sandy Springs Police Capt. Steve Rose said officers responded to reports of gunfire in the housing complex at about 4PM. The hotel and the student housing complex are separated by a fence. "Witnesses said that they saw someone running from the scene, hop the fence and we don't know if that was a witness or whether that was the suspect," Capt. Rose said. Officers set up a perimeter around the area of Barfield Road and Hammond Drive and closed off the student housing complex.
Police conducted a search for the suspect for more than two hours while students inside the complex couldn't leave, and students who were coming back from classes weren't allowed back in.
On Friday, Sandy Springs police named 21-year-old Patricko Mondrez Davis, of Pine Cone Road in Atlanta, as the suspect in the shooting. Authorities believe that Davis shot Williams after an argument. Police said Davis is a student at the Art Institute of Atlanta, but is not listed as a resident of the Hub.
Students who waited to get back in told 11Alive they usually feel safe where they live. The shooting has unnerved some. "I am concerned but then again it is a very scary situation," said Eric Roberts.
Jay Sanders said she has never heard any shootings before this. "Its usually pretty safe around here, this whole area is pretty safe, so its just an act of stupidity," she said.
The Sheraton released a statement on the shooting Thursday evening:
At the Sheraton Atlanta Perimeter North our most important priority is the safety and well-being of our guests and team members. An incident such as this is extremely unusual in this area. We express our deepest concern for the victim of the shooting, who was not a guest or employee of the Sheraton. Our staff is cooperating with the Sandy Springs Police in their investigation.
