(UnitedVoice.com) – Mass shootings are an all too familiar problem in the US. They have impacted every corner of the country over the last 30 years or so. Authorities recently placed Midtown Atlanta on lockdown and asked individuals to shelter in place after a shooting. When they finally lifted the order, a resident made a shocking remark to a CNN anchor.
Four Active Shootings
On Wednesday, May 3, a gunman reportedly became enraged while he was at a midtown medical facility. In response, he pulled out a handgun, shot one person dead, and injured several others before fleeing the scene. The Atlanta Police Department quickly set up a perimeter in midtown and placed the building on lockdown. The suspected gunman, 24-year-old Deion Patterson, was later apprehended outside of the city in Cobb County.
In the aftermath of the shooting, Tyrisia Woods, a woman who was just a couple of floors away from where the shooting took place, talked to CNN about her experience. She told anchor Jim Sciutto that she locked down the facility where she was working and then checked on the patients. She explained that she feels very unsafe working in the building because it doesn’t have metal detectors.
Woods told CNN the incident was the fourth active shooter situation she has experienced in the nearly five years she has worked in the building. Sciutto was taken aback by the claim, saying, “Jesus! It’s shockingto hear… for people listening at home.”
Atlanta Crime
Woods did not expand on the other shootings she has experienced, but Atlanta is no stranger to violence and mass shootings. In 2021, the city was gripped by fear after then-21-year-old Robert Aaron Long carried out a spree shooting at Asian spas. Long killed four people in the shootings and later pleaded guilty.
In November 2022, a group of people were escorted off the property at the Atlantic station mall, a popular shopping center in the city. The group was on a freeway overpass across from the mall when gunfire erupted. One person was killed, and five others suffered injuries.
In January 2023, an argument took place at the Perimeter Mall. A suspect pulled out a gun and shot a victim. The injured party returned gunfire and hit the person who shot them.
America’s Problem
In the days after the shooting in the Atlanta medical center, another mass shooting occurred. On Saturday, May 6, a gunman got out of his vehicle at an Allen, Texas, mall and opened fire on shopping center patrons.
At least eight people, including a child, died in the shooting, and seven others were injured. A police officer who was at the mall responding to another call heard gunfire and took action, putting an end to the shooter’s rampage. They engaged the shooter and killed him.
There have been more than 200 mass shootings in the US in 2023, according to the Gun Violence Archive.
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