A man was found dead Monday night after a shooting in Buckhead where a child was inside a vehicle throughout the incident, police said.
Officers were called to the 700 block of Park Regency Place directly behind the luxury Phipps Plaza around 6:30 p.m. Police said a 24-year-old man, identified by the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office as Oquonzzie S. West, was found shot and killed at the scene.
The preliminary investigation revealed that a dispute between West and the suspected shooter ensued and gunfire eventually broke out, police said. The victim attempted to leave the scene in a vehicle, but crashed a short distance away, according to police.
A child was inside the vehicle during the incident, police said. The child was not injured.
“I saw a guy just laid out on the grass. I assumed he probably like, you know, just tried to stumble out of his car or something,” a witness told Channel 2 Action News from the scene. “It’s super unfortunate. My heart and prayers go out to them for sure.”
Police said West and the suspect knew each other and that the incident appears to be isolated. Investigators confirmed they are still working to identify a suspect and determine the details surrounding the incident.
A few days before Christmas 2020, 7-year-old Kennedy Maxie was shot in the back of the head outside Phipps Plaza after gunfire erupted between feuding groups. She died the day after Christmas. Daquan Reed was charged with felony murder, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime and reckless conduct in her death.
Nearby Lenox Square has been the site of multiple shootings. In June, two teenagers attempted to rob a security guard and then shot him, leaving him critically injured, Atlanta police said. Authorities investigated at least six shootings last year at Lenox, one fatal.
Arrests have been made in the majority of those cases, which prompted security measures such as a weapons detector at the mall’s main entrance and a policy requiring youths be accompanied by a parent or adult 21 or older after 3 p.m.
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