A spokesperson for the Atlanta Police Department confirmed to Newsweek that the 10 shootings are under investigation and “detectives see no indication that they are connected.”
“Obviously, these types of shootings are very concerning for the police department. Not only do you have the two vehicles involved in the shooting, but you also have multiple people that are driving on the interstate,” a department spokesperson told 11 Alive in Atlanta. “There could also be victims in these types of crimes.”
In the most recent incident, Atlanta police responded at about 2:50 a.m. Friday for a report of a person shot on 1-20W near Langhorn Drive, where they found a 29-year-old man with a gunshot wound.
“The victim told police that he was driving on the interstate when a red vehicle pulled alongside and someone inside shot at him,” according to a press releasefrom Atlanta police.
The man who was shot, Andre Blair, said the suspect’s vehicle kept driving and Blair pulled over to call 911. Blair was taken to a hospital in stable condition.
Blair’s is the 10th shooting incident on the interstate in just nine weeks. According to 11 Alive, the first occurred on January 4, when police found a man with a gunshot wound to the head along 1-20 near Capitol Avenue.
The other shootings involved multiple fatalities and, in more than one case, victims reported suspects driving up next to them and firing into their vehicles. In one instance, Atlanta rapper Cyhi the Prynce reported that he was chased and shot at while driving on 1-20 in February.
Local officials have been responding to a rise of shootings in the area since the start of the year. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that after a deadly 2020, Atlanta homicides are up 60 percent compared to this time last year. Atlanta police have investigated at least 32 homicides since the start of 2021, 20 more than the number reported in the first three months of last year. And the city is just weeks from a mass shooting at local massage parlors that killed eight people.
“It’s every single day. It’s awful,” Sgt. Ashley Henson, a spokesman for the Paulding County Sheriff’s Office, told the Journal-Constitution.
In her State of the City speech Wednesday, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms called gun violence in the city a “public health emergency” and announced she would be hiring 250 new police officers to curb Atlanta’s uptick in violence.
“This is hard work, and it won’t be easy, but we are up to the task and it will take all of us as a community working together to make a difference,” Bottoms said.
Newsweek has reached out for comment from Bottoms’ office but did not receive a reply by publication time.
