South Fulton County

Sources: Teen shot by police near Six Flags has ties to gangs, incident retaliation for drive-by

SOUTH FULTON, Ga. — Channel 2 Action News has learned that the 15-year-old suspect who was critically injured during the chaos outside Six Flags Over Georgia was also wounded in a drive-by shooting last month.

Channel 2′s Michael Seiden spoke with three independent law enforcement sources on Tuesday who all confirmed that Syere Littlefield is not a documented gang member, but he has been known to hang out with gang members, which is why they believe he may have been targeted at a house party last month.

The same sources also told Seiden that the shootings at Six Flags were in retaliation for that drive-by shooting.

“We cannot turn our heads away because this is something that everyone is dealing with,” said South Fulton Police Capt. Adrian Massey, who is in charge of that department’s gang unit.

Massey told Seiden that he believes a gang-related drive-by shooting at a home on Lavender Lane last month in South Fulton is connected to the violence that unfolded outside of Six Flags on Saturday.

“From the intel that we have received we believe that this is in reference to,” Massey said.

The drive-by shooting injured Littlefield, who is also the same teen who police shot over the weekend.

As authorities continue to investigate both shootings, we wanted to give you a closer look at how we got to this point.

On Feb. 17, South Fulton police responded to the drive-by shooting at a house party. When officers arrived, they found Littlefield shot in the arm.

As of Monday, no one has been arrested in the incident.

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On Saturday evening, March 2, around 6:15 p.m. chaos broke out at Six Flags as officers responded to a series of fights. Police say the fighting continued outside of the park.

Then around 7:30 p.m., shots were fired. It all happened just northwest of the park entrance as officers tried to gain control of a crowd of more than 500 people.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation said several people opened fire and at some point during the violence, Littlefield was shot in a confrontation with police.

Investigators say he was armed with a gun. Littlefield has been charged as an adult.

He remains in the intensive care unit at Grady Memorial Hospital.

Seiden checked and South Fulton police and they said Littlefield has no previous arrest record with their agency.

Law enforcement sources told Seiden that there were social media posts before Saturday’s shootings that indicated something may happen.

Seiden tried to find them online, but it appears they’ve been taken down.

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