Witnesses describe MARTA shooting at West Lake station
ATLANTA - Witnesses have shared videos to FOX 5 News of the immediate aftermath of a shooting at the West Lake MARTA station Thursday. Police said a gunman opened fire on a train, killing one and wounding three others. Another passenger was injured in the panic that followed.
"I sat down. When I sat down, a couple minutes later a dude sat by another dude, as soon as he did, he bobbed his head, I ain't paying not attention to what, you know, what he was looking like. He had a hat on and he bobbed his head, and he got up and walked back to the back of the train and after that, heard shots, hit the deck and just saw some shoes walk past and that's it," a witness told FOX 5's Jaclyn Schultz.
WATCH: Friends, family describe the shooting
"All I hear is 'pop!' Then like, a couple more second more later it was like 'Pop, pop, pop!' I look back, I see a guy's back going like this," witness Cedric Peterson described the gunman firing to FOX 5's Jaclyn Shultz. "I got into track mode. I run towards where the train doors are and I go through them to get on the next train."
"We heard popping noises coming from the car behind us. We just thought it was the train making noises," said witness Rashad Caleb who said he got on the train with his family at the same station as the gunman.
"I got on the ground. The same thing you would have done and you would have done and you would have done, of course," said a witness.
"It didn't look like the MARTA police knew or was aware of what was going on, the officers that were actually at the station. We used the train intercom to try to get in contact with the operator and the police," said Caleb.
"Shortly after that, we immediately saw a lot of people running from the back of the train. At that point, we got up, I grabbed the children and we ran to the front of the train," said Caleb, who started to film the scene.
WATCH: The immediate aftermath (Courtesy: Rashad Caleb)
“It's like five people lay down. More people still trying to crawl over us, still trying to climb over the back of us. I was like 'Dude, you got to let somebody up, can't nobody get through.’ But I can understand why they were doing what they were doing because they couldn't clearly see,” said Peterson.
"When we got to the station everyone rushed off the train," said Caleb.
WATCH: The immediate aftermath (Courtesy: Rashad Caleb)
“There was like two ladies in front of me, but we pushed through the first door easily, I'm outside, but let's keep going so when we got to that set of train doors, it was jammed. We couldn't get it open. When we finally got it open, everybody was on us. We falling through the door way. I was like 'Yo, we got kids down here,’” said Peterson.
“There was people trying to throw something out of the windows, to break the windows and get off the train. My sister and my niece was trampled and was almost severely hurt, thank God they weren't,” said Caleb.
“And if you got a shooter behind you, you just trying to get it, because that was what I was trying to do. After a few minutes, you know what I’m saying, I notice I didn't hear any more shots,” said Peterson.
The MARTA Police Department is asking anyone with information to contact them at 404-848-4911.