A man who shot three people inside the Peachtree Center food court in downtown Atlanta last summer will spend 10 years in prison following a guilty plea Friday.
Jeremy Malone, 34, pleaded guilty to multiple charges, including four counts of aggravated assault, criminal attempt to commit murder and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, Fulton County court records show. As part of his non-negotiated plea, Superior Court Judge Belinda Edwards sentenced Malone to 10 years in prison, followed by 10 years on probation.
On June 11, Malone fought with a man inside the food court before shooting him, the GBI previously said. Malone then fired additional shots injuring others before he was shot by an off-duty police officer, who was credited with stopping the violence before others were injured.
Police said Malone had previously served time for an armed robbery and had been arrested 11 times.
“This is an individual that should never have been possessing a gun,” Atlanta police Chief Darin Schierbaum said after the shooting.
It was part of a frenzied crime spree that day in metro Atlanta. Barely two hours later and a few blocks away, a second suspect allegedly hijacked a bus and killed a person before surrendering miles away, according to police.
While the food court shooting was still under investigation, police learned a Gwinnett County Transit bus had been hijacked. The suspect, 39-year-old Joseph Grier, was eventually arrested after stopping the bus in DeKalb County. Grier remains in the Fulton jail awaiting trial.
Days later, Deborah Hardy told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that she and her sister, along with their 3-year-old great niece, were lucky to be alive after being shot in the food court. Hardy, 69, didn’t initially realize she had been struck, but she saw her older sister bleeding.
The women and the little girl ran into a nearby restaurant and fell to the floor.
“We hollered, ‘Call 911! Call 911! We’ve both been shot,’” Hardy told the AJC.
At the hospital, doctors said Hardy’s wound was superficial and entered the fat in her calf, she said. Her sister was shot in the ankle, but her wounds were also not serious. Both were able to go home the same day. Little Zaria wasn’t injured.
“I’m so thankful to my heavenly Father that nothing was worse,” Hardy said. “He was there. He was definitely with us. It would’ve been so much worse if he hadn’t been with us.”
In October, Atlanta police Officer Lamar Jacobs received the Medal of Honor award, APD’s highest honor, for his response to the shooting. He was eating lunch when he heard shots go off.
“It has to be something in you, a spark that makes you spring into action because I didn’t know I was going to do that, I didn’t have that in my mind,” Jacobs said.
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