Georgia police have arrested the female suspect who is linked to the triple shooting in Midtown Atlanta that resulted in the death of two people and the injury of a third on Monday afternoon.
Investigators said that the woman specifically targeted the victims that she shot down in two different locations in the area. The shootings essentially locked down the Midtown neighborhood in the heart of Atlanta for several hours.
Georgia Shooting
Authorities have not yet released the identity of the suspect nor did they say what the shooter's relationship to the victims was. The Fulton County Medical Examiner's Office said that the two fatalities were 41-year-old Westley Freeman of Atlanta and 60-year-old Michael Shinners of Alpharetta.
Atlanta 911 received a call at around 1:46 p.m. noting that the incident took place at 1280 W. Peachtree Street, at the corner of 16th Street. After officers arrived at the 40-story 1280 West condo building, they discovered two people were shot. Police said that one person was dead while another was immediately rushed to an area hospital, as per Fox5 Atlanta.
At around 2:00 p.m, a second 911 call was placed that reported a shooting as well, but this time it was at 1100 Peachtree Street. Police arrived at the Eleven Hundred Peachtree executive office building to find one person injured by apparent gunfire. The victim was immediately rushed to an area hospital for treatment.
In a statement, Interim Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum said, "The lookout for both of the shooters, we found out quickly, was the same person. It was a female that was matching the same description that was seen in this area."
According to CNN, police posted on Twitter that the female suspect was located at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. Schierbaum said that they believe the suspects were targeted, adding that officers searching for the suspect had obtained information about the whereabouts of the shooter.
Rising Gun Violence
Authorities discovered a handgun at the airport and Mayor Andre Dickens said that the suspect was apprehended before she was able to go through airport security. The mayor sent his condolences to the families of the victims and said that the community should know that it was now safe.
The shooting comes as gun violence continues to become an issue in the United States, with some schools becoming victims of shooters. A report released on Friday showed that no school year in the U.S. in nearly a decade saw as much gunfire as the 2021-2022 academic calendar.
The report was published by Everytown For Gun Safety, which is a non-partisan group advocating against gun violence. It revealed that the last school year, between Aug. 1 and May 31, saw 193 incidents of gunfire, which is more than double the total of the previous year.
The group tracked data going back to the 2013 to 2014 school year and found that no other school year had more than 75 incidents of gunfire. The most recent one had incidents that led to 59 deaths and 138 injuries, USA Today reported.
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