A day after four people, including the suspect, were shot at a downtown Atlanta food court, more than a dozen people were having breakfast early Wednesday.
“It kind of makes you want to be afraid to come down here, but I have to come down here because I work down here,” said Melissa Dingle, who stopped by for some Chick-fil-A on her way to work. “I’ve got to work.”
Shots rang out at The Hub at Peachtree Center around 2:15 p.m. Tuesday. A fight between two people turned to gunfire when someone pulled out a gun and shot three people, Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens confirmed.
The suspect, Jeremy Malone of Morrow, faces charges of aggravated assault, third-degree cruelty to children, reckless conduct and possession of a firearm by a felon and during the commission of a crime, according to Fulton County jail records.
“A 34-year-old suspect armed with a handgun had entered the food court, and after a brief altercation with an individual, he shot that individual. And then that perpetrator continued on to shoot two others that were in the food court,” Atlanta police Chief Darin Schierbaum said.
According to the GBI, Malone walked into the building, got into a fight with a man, pulled out a gun and shot him. Malone then walked “further into the food court area of the mall and shot two other people.”
An off-duty Atlanta police officer shot the suspect, Schierbaum said, adding that surveillance footage helped authorities understand what had happened.
Among those injured are a 47-year-old man from Grayson, a 69-year-old woman from East Point and a 70-year-old woman from Atlanta. Two victims were taken to Grady Memorial Hospital in critical condition. The two others were taken to Emory Midtown Hospital.
Malone was among those taken to the hospital but had been released into APD custody as of Wednesday morning, according to the GBI, which has been asked to investigate.
Malone is a felon who has served prison time for an armed robbery and has been arrested 11 times, officials said.
“This is an individual that should never have been possessing a gun, an individual that should never have placed this community in harm,” Schierbaum said Tuesday.
Police at the scene said many witnesses left behind their possessions, including backpacks and cellphones, when the shooting erupted.
Tab Tambe had taken two bites from his Chick-fil-A meal when he heard a blast and assumed something had dropped in one of the kitchens on Tuesday. But then the sound of gunfire became clearer. He looked for cover, leaving his phone at his table.
“Everyone started running, so I looked at the one person who wasn’t running and it was the shooter,” Tambe told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution after he was able to make it out of the Peachtree Center.
He remembered falling as people fled in all directions. He ran toward a Dairy Queen and tried to catch glimpses of the shooter and police as he stayed hidden.
He said he was shocked by the shooting, explaining that it didn’t feel like real life.
“I’m just glad that I’m alive,” he said.
Jamal Mathews was getting ready to return to his truck after finishing a delivery at a building across from the shooting location when he saw dozens of police officers flood Peachtree Street. He said it’s common to see police officers around the downtown area, and he wasn’t surprised to learn that a shooting had occurred.
“I’m just glad the police can make the block safe ... I can see they really know what they’re doing,” Mathews said.
Peachtree Center is a 2.5 million-square-foot complex consisting of six office towers and a mall developed by famed Atlanta architect and developer John Portman.
Once the GBI has completed its investigation, the case file will be given to the Fulton District Attorney’s Office for review.
The incident was the 30th officer-involved shooting the GBI has been asked to investigate this year.
— Staff writer Reed Williams contributed to this story.
