5 people shot outside club hosting Atlanta Black Pride party

ATLANTA — Atlanta police are investigating a shooting outside a club that was hosting a Black Pride event on Joseph E. Boone Boulevard.

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There was a heavy police presence Monday morning at the intersection of Proctor Street near the Marquette Club as police investigate.

The Marquette Lounge said on its website that it was hosting a Black Pride block party overnight Sunday. The event was scheduled from 10:30 p.m. Sunday to 6 a.m. Monday.

Rapper Lil Kim was scheduled to appear at the event.

Channel 2′s Kristen Holloway learned that a fight broke out outside the club and a man started shooting in the air and into the crowd.

Five people went to the hospital with gunshot wounds. The names and conditions of the victims have not been released.

The suspected shooter left the scene. Investigators with the aggravated assault unit are working to determine the circumstances surrounding the shooting.

Witness Tarell Heard told Howard that he heard at least eight gunshots as the party was ending and people were leaving.

Heard, who is not from Atlanta, said he’s never coming back.

“It’s always something (in Atlanta),” he said. “If it’s not fighting, it’s gunshots.”

This is just the latest in a series of mass shootings in Georgia over Labor Day weekend. Seven people were injured in a shooting in downtown Athens early Sunday morning. Police are still searching for the shooter.

A shooting at a block party in Warner Robins Saturday night left a 15-year-old metro Atlanta girl dead and 4 other teenagers with gunshot wounds.

Management for the club released a statement Monday night, saying:

“The Marquette Lounge management team is committed to the safety of our guests and are deeply saddened by the events that occurred outside the facility and across the street from our parking lot on Sunday evening as our establishment closed.

“Our premises were fully secured at the time and to our knowledge, no major occurrence happened that would warrant the shooting that took place across the street. We are limited in the level of control we have in situations that do not occur on our property. We have reached out to the Atlanta Police Department and are fully cooperating with the ongoing investigation.

“People are known to congregate in the park because it is close to our establishment but the location where the incident happened is a separate entity. Because this is an active investigation, we cannot comment further at this time.”

IN OTHER NEWS:

Police searching for ‘armed and dangerous’ man they say shot 6 people in downtown Athens Police said a large fight broke out in the area of East Clayton Street and North Jackson Street just after 1 a.m.

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