Gym owner shot while escaping robbery attempt

ATLANTA — A local gym owner said he's thankful to be alive after men wearing bandannas covering their faces shot him during an attempted robbery.

Scott King told Channel 2's Amy Napier Viteri he was opening his gym on Howell Mill Road around 4 a.m. when two young men appeared with guns and ordered him to the ground.

"So the guy point-blank said to me 'If you don't give me the keys, I'm going to shoot you. I'm going to kill you,'" King said.
 
King said a third man was waiting in the car. He told the men the keys to his car were inside the business. He said they couldn't immediately find them and threatened again to kill him so he decided to run.

"And as I did I put my hand up. His first shot hit me in the wrist," King said. The bullet went through his wrist but missed arteries and bone.

King said he ran around the building in a zig-zag pattern as the men fired twice more, but missed him.

He ran to a 24-hour McDonald's across the street where an employee called 911. He said the men seemed to be looking for him as they pulled onto Howell Mill Road. He said he believes the men would have killed him.

"They're taking my car. What are they just going to leave me standing there? I didn't think so. So it was pretty clear what they were going to do," King said.

King said he's seen a black Mazda behind his property in the past week and thinks the men were staking out his business.

"The angels were protecting me. God's angels were protecting me through the whole process. It could have been a lot worse," he said.

He described the car as a dark Mazda with tinted windows, dark rims and a low profile. He said the men seemed young, possibly teenagers and spoke with a Spanish accent.

WSBTV