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Police search for teen believed to have shot man trying to break up fight

ATLANTA — A man who was shot trying to break up a fight says he forgives the teen who shot him. Jamie Pruitt also said he's bothered that the shooter's friends repeatedly urged him to shoot him.
 
The shooting took place Monday afternoon on To Lani Farm Road.
 
Pruitt, 29, said that's when a normal day almost turned tragic.
 
"I thought it was over," he said from his hospital bed at Grady Memorial Hospital.
 
Pruitt heard a gunshot and knew it wasn't good.
 
"(Saw) I was bleeding. Just laid down in the shade," he said.
 
Moments before that his wife says he had just attempted to break up a fight involving his nephew and other teens in a nearby lot.

"(He was trying to be) the peacemaker. Didn't have anything to do with it. He's trying to make peace between these two groups," Naterra Pruitt told Channel 2's Tom Jones while tending to her husband.
 
Jamie Pruitt said as he attempted to break up the all-out brawl he bumped one of the teens and that's when the young man ran and grabbed a gun from a car.
 
Pruitt started running.
 
"It all happened so fast," he said.
 
He said he stopped and tried to grab the gun and that's when the teen shot him in the chest.
 
"Only think I was thinking about when I heard the gun go off was my kids, my family and my kids. I just wanted to make it back home to them," he said.
 
Luckily, Pruitt survived. The shooter remains on the loose.
 
Pruitt said he has no animosity towards the shooter. He had this message for the young man.
 
"I forgive you. With all my heart I forgive you. You didn't know what you were doing," he said.
 
Pruitt said the young shooter looked afraid and thinks he only shot after his friends egged him on. 
 
"(He responded to) the pressure of hearing other guys saying, Shoot him, shoot him, shoot him,'" he said.
 
He urged young people to stay away from guns and violence and stay away from so-called friends who lead them down the wrong path. 
 
"Stop pushing each other to do something negative. Start pushing each other to do something positive," Pruitt said.
 
DeKalb County police said they are investigating but confirmed Pruitt's story. They said they are looking for the shooter. 
 
Pruitt urged the young man to turn himself in.