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Atlanta police investigate shooting near GSU

ATLANTA — Atlanta police are investigating a shooting near Georgia State University’s campus.

Police say one person was shot in the shoulder when someone fired rapidly into a crowd early Sunday morning. It happened near a campus parking deck at Armstrong Street and Piedmont Avenue, leaving bullet holes and broken windows in the deck.

Several students, who were nearby when the shooting happened, heard the shots.

“Right about the time I got out of the car I heard the shots fired down the road and I saw people come running up Piedmont Ave.,” said student Matt Petters. “I heard something like 20 [shots]. It was terrifying obviously. That’s just scary.”

“[I] heard 15 shots,” said another student. “I thought it was an AK-47. My friend thought it was a firecracker.”

Police say around 1:30 Sunday morning between Grady Hospital and the GSU campus a few men started fighting and then one pulled a gun.

“The bullets went through the parking garage so luckily no one was walking during that time,” said student Shaina Witter.

Witter’s mother, Paula, said she feels the school is safe but when she saw the damage firsthand she was shocked.

“It is traumatizing,” said Paula Witters. “She feels safe and I feel safe, but as far as seeing this during summer vacation, it’s a little scary that she has to go back to campus. I just gotta keep her in my prayers.”

GSU officers and APD officers will continue to run extra patrols in this area.

“It took us a few yards off campus,” said Deputy Chief Carlton Mullins, with the GSU Police Department, “What happens near us happens to us.”

There are four cameras in close proximity to where the shooting happened. Police believe two of them may have caught parts of the shooting. They are looking through them to get a description of the shooter.

The man who was hit in the shoulder was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital. Investigators say he is not a Georgia State student.