Man shot near East Lake MARTA station, suspect arrested

WSBTV.com News Staff
·2 min read
1

Atlanta police investigated a shooting near a MARTA station on Friday afternoon.

Officers said that a 32-year-old man was shot near the East Lake MARTA station on College Avenue and taken to a hospital.

Police found a car on College Avenue with several bullet holes and were also seen investigating a separate, but related scene about a mile away on Commerce Drive in Decatur.

[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]

Neighbors told Channel 2′s Michael Doudna what they saw after the shooting.

Randall Costner was outside, monitoring a project at his house when he though he heard a series of fireworks in the Kirkwood neighborhood.

“My first thought was the fireworks. But fireworks don’t go off that fast,” Costner said.

TRENDING STORIES:

Costner realized after a second burst that he was hearing gunshots, not fireworks, and went down the street to see what was going on. As he walked towards the noise, he says he saw a man with a big black rifle.

“The emotion was to think about it later and run as fast as you can. So it was one of these moments where you literally ran for your life,” Costner said.

Soon after, Costner would jump over a fence to get away, and Ring video showed the man walking down the street towards Cristin Meeker’s home.

The unidentified shooter police spent hours looking for was arrested early Friday evening.

Meeker said she was on the phone with 911 when she saw the shooter. She told Channel 2 Action News that he seemed nervous and angry as she quickly went inside yelling for her husband.

“He looked at me and walked on, but he could have easily not wanted a witness,” Meeker said.

Thankfully, the man kept walking police say the suspect eventually ditched his rifle and surrendered to police without incident.

“Still, the fact that someone has that in their mind? To do something like that, and they are okay doing something like that,” Meeker said “We love living here, we have lived here for almost 20 years, and we have great neighbors, but it makes you go, huh, maybe we should move to an island.”

Officers told Channel 2 Action News that the shooting suspect and the victim knew each other and the shooting was the result of a dispute.

Officers in the area found the suspect’s gun.

Police said the victim is expected to survive.

[SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]

IN OTHER NEWS: