Four people were shot after a man mishandled a gun and it went off Sunday inside a Walmart in Lovejoy, police said.
The shooting occurred about 12:20 p.m. when the customer inside the store along Tara Boulevard shot himself in the leg, Lovejoy police spokesman Sgt. Akeem Turnbull said. The bullet then ricocheted, striking three other people, according to authorities. All of the injuries were not considered life-threatening.
According to police, the armed man, identified as 29-year-old Michael Walton, did not have his gun secured in a holster while it was loaded.
“The weapon slipped from his waistband and as he was handling the firearm, pulled the trigger and discharged one round,” Turnbull said.
Walton was charged with reckless conduct and booked into the Clayton County Jail.
In mid-July, two people were arrested after they allegedly kidnapped an 18-year-old woman at the same Walmart, police said.
Witnesses in that incident told Lovejoy officers that they saw a man walk up to a vehicle with a gun, break the car window, drag a woman out and force her into his vehicle at gunpoint. The victim was eventually able to escape near Macon and the kidnapping suspects were located in Albany.
About the Author
