Cobb man shot in the face with pellet gun while leaving Kroger. Police say it’s not the first time.

SMYRNA, Ga. — A man in his seventies says he was shot in the face with a pellet while he was leaving a grocery store on New Year’s Day in Cobb County.

“He was looking around to see if it was hail and realized it wasn’t,” his wife, Susan Reid, said.

Smyrna police told Channel 2 Cobb County Bureau Chief Michele Newell that they are investigating two similar incidents that happened in the same parking lot on New Year’s Day.

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“As he was coming out of the Kroger doors, this is when he felt the pellets all over him; his chest and his face,” said Reid.

Reid said her husband saw two young people take off in a white Chrysler with no tags.

“He saw a person behind the driver laughing, and I mean it’s not a laughing matter. My husband will be 73 in a week or two. You know, you get old and you have things happen. This is not something that with a heart condition, that he needed. This is crazy,” said Reid.

She said she called police when he got back home and told her what happened.

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Police say they aren’t sure about the exact make or model of the pellet gun used, but say many of them look like real guns.

The victims in each case did not meet directly with police about what occurred, but police say they searched the area for clues and didn’t find anything.

Smyrna police say they haven’t received calls about pellet gun shootings in a very long time. Police say the victims in the most recent cases told them they weren’t injured. Incidents like this could result in serious charges.

“It’s very frustrating. It wasn’t like this when we bought our house here. To have this creeping in is just terrible,” said Reid.

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