Memorial Day shootout at Lawrenceville gas station
LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. - Lawrenceville Police are looking for the men they said opened fire at a busy gas station on Memorial Day.
“It being Memorial Day I heard fireworks all night, then I heard two pops that were clearly not fireworks,” said Doug Bailey who works right across the street from the QT on Buford Drive where the shooting took place.
Lawrenceville Police said it all started inside the store, when one guy did not like the way the other looked at him. In surveillance video you can see the two men walk outside and get into a shoving match. That’s when detectives said one of the guys grabbed a rifle from a Camaro.
“These two gentleman, with blatant disrespect for any kind of public safety, decided they were going to open fire on this public parking lot,” said Detective Scott Pendergrass with Lawrenceville Police.
Police said the shooting happened at a gas station where law enforcement frequent; it is only about half a mile away from The Gwinnett County Sheriff’s Office.
“All night you cannot go 30 seconds without a police car rolling through,” said Bailey.
Police said after the Explorer left, the guy with the rifle put it away and went back inside the store to pay for his juice and apologized to the clerk.
“It is that brazen, that bold to get into a shootout in the parking lot and then come in and buy a juice,” said Detective Pendergrass.
Detective Pendergrass said there were children in a nearby car when the gunfire broke out. Fortunately no one was hurt, but police said these men are dangerous and want them off the street.
“To see their actions, to see how nonchalant they were about the incident, yeah they will do this again,” said Detective Pendergrass.