Cobb County public safety officials joined Mableton Mayor Michael Owens and other community stakeholders Tuesday to discuss safety in the south Cobb area in the wake of the fighting and gunfire at Six Flags Over Georgia on opening day.
Earlier this month, a 15-year-old boy was critically injured and is now facing charges after being shot by Cobb County police during an exchange of gunfire outside the park. Cobb County police said they helped Six Flags security with an “unruly crowd” that had swelled to about 600 people who were “running through the park and fighting.”
In the wake of the incident, Owens pledged to improve safety and security in the area and convened a meeting with Cobb County Police Chief Stuart VanHoozer, Sheriff Craig Owens and Public Safety Director Mike Register.
“Having a unified and cohesive collaborative response is really what saves lives, what keeps the community safe,” Register said. “It is always a work in progress. We can’t have contingencies for everything, but what we can do is have response protocols that we can adjust as a situation entails.”
This was the second straight year that violence was reported at Six Flags on the opening day of the season. Leaders did not divulge any specific, concrete steps they plan to take but said they discussed the history of crime in the area over time and strategized how they can collaborate with Six Flags to implement more security measures.
“There’s not a silver bullet, there’s not a single solution to this,” Owens said. “But together collaboratively, we can impact change.”
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