A trail of blood from a northwest Atlanta gas station led police officers to a grisly discovery at a nearby apartment complex Friday morning.
The officers were called to an Exxon station at the corner of West Lake Avenue and Joseph E. Boone Boulevard to investigate a report of a person shot. There, they found a man with multiple gunshot wounds about 2:50 a.m., according to Atlanta police Lt. Daniel Genson.
“After he got transported to Grady Hospital, they followed his blood trail to a nearby apartment complex,” Genson told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution from the scene. “They located the apartment where the blood trail was coming from, made entry into the apartment to clear it, to make sure everything was safe in there. Unfortunately, it wasn’t.”
Inside the apartment, officers located a second gunshot victim, 23-year-old Diamond O’Neal, dead of her injuries. They also found a baby who did not appear to be injured, Genson said. The child was taken to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Hughes Spalding Hospital.
Credit: JOHN SPINK / JSPINK@AJC.COM
Credit: JOHN SPINK / JSPINK@AJC.COM
The condition of the male victim wasn’t immediately available Friday and it’s unclear what led to the shootings. O’Neal’s death is the 64th homicide for the city in 2021, a 58% increase over this time last year.
Investigators recovered several shell casings between the two crime scenes, but they did not locate a weapon. It was not immediately clear how the two victims were connected.
“We have a lot of really strong leads,” said Genson, who heads the police department’s homicide unit. “We just need to vet everything, make sure everything is what it is. I feel good about this investigation, the direction it is headed.”
— Please return to Atlanta Journal-Constitution for updates.
