7-year-old shot 3 times while sleeping in Kimberly Way shooting
First grader recovering after apartment shooting
A seven-year-old first grader is recovering after being shot three times while sleeping in a southwest Atlanta apartment complex.
ATLANTA - A 7-year-old boy is recovering at a local hospital after gunfire tore through his southwest Atlanta home while he slept.
Investigation into Kimberly Way shooting
What we know:
Atlanta police responded around 1:45 a.m. to the complex on Kimberly Way, where they found the child had been struck several times in the arm.
The child, a first-grader at KIPP Vision, was rushed to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta’s Arthur M. Blank Hospital. Doctors expect the boy to make a full recovery despite the severity of the wounds.
7-year-old shot multiple times in SW Atlanta
A 7-year-old boy was shot multiple times early Thursday morning at an apartment complex in southwest Atlanta, according to police.
Investigators found that the gunfire was not contained to a single home; at least three different apartments were struck by bullets during the incident.
Police spent hours combing the scene and nearby roadway for evidence, including shell casings and surveillance video, as they work to determine what led to the shooting. Authorities have not released any suspect or vehicle information, and the investigation remains active.
What we don't know:
Authorities have not determined if the shooting was a random act of violence.
While police are canvassing the area for surveillance footage and witnesses, no suspect descriptions or vehicle information have been released.
The specific type of weapon used and the number of shooters involved also remain under investigation as police work to find a motive.
‘That could have been my kid’
What they're saying:
The violence has left parents in the apartment community shaken and demanding answers.
"We had nothing to do with nothing but bullets came through our apartment," said one mother of four who found bullet holes in her walls after the family woke up to gunfire. "That could have been my kid. My kids walk to the school bus in the morning, get off the bus in the afternoon. They have gunfire in the daytime it does not have to be at night." The mother noted she is "still lost as to how these kids or guys keep getting these guns" and why they are engaging in such "reckless shooting."
A neighbor who lives at the complex described the terrifying moments when the gunfire erupted.
"Some were close, but I didn’t know how close they would be because I can’t make out the sound," the neighbor said. "Then the other ones sound like it was farther… then when we heard the police officers, the whole — like the bullets came through the apartment from back there to ours."
The neighbor added, "I was just happy it wasn’t on this side because if it would have been on this side, it most likely would have hit somebody in ours."
Neighbor talks about shooting that injured child
A woman describes hearing the shooting that injured a 7-year-old child overnight at an apartment complex in southwest Atlanta. Lindsay Tuman reporting.
Violence and the city’s ‘bad formula’
Big picture view:
Mayor Andre Dickens addressed the shooting by pointing to a contradiction in city safety data. While the mayor noted that homicides are down by 44 percent, the frequency of youth-involved gun violence remains a crisis. "Whether it was intentional or not intentional, we will be able to find out more about it but it's still a bad formula... young people having a gun in his hand," Dickens said.
What you can do:
Atlanta police are asking anyone with information about the shooting or those involved to come forward. Tips can be submitted anonymously to the Atlanta Police Department or through Crime Stoppers.