Man shot by off-duty officers outside midtown night club

ATLANTA — A man is in critical condition after police say he refused to put down his gun and pointed it at officers early Friday morning.

Witnesses inside the Sutra Lounge on 13th Street and Crescent Avenue said a fight was brewing inside the bar between a group of women and some men.

The club's head of security said the fight spilled out into the nearby parking lot.

"They were all on the ground over here, you know, people being held down. I was trying to get the police down here. They're usually up on Crescent but I radioed them to come down to 13th Street and when they were on their way down there, that's when shots were fired," said Sutra Lounge head of security Theodore Tuncel.

Maj. Darryl Tolleson told Channel 2's Amanda Cook that two nearby off-duty officers in full uniform responded to the large fight around 3 a.m. He said officers told one man to put down his gun, but he instead pointed it at officers. Witnesses said they heard as many as 15 gunshots after that.

Atlanta police said the man with the gun was struck at least one time. He was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital in critical condition.

The officers were not injured. They are on administrative leave, which is standard for officer-involved shootings.

WSBTV