The victims of a shooting that unfolded Saturday night near a popular Atlanta shopping destination that left one dead and five injured were all minors, including a 12-year-old who died, officials said Sunday.
Mayor Andre Dickens confirmed the victims’ ages at a news conference, according to NBC affiliate WXIA of Atlanta. He said that some of the victims were Atlanta Public School students, WXIA reported. Dickens said one of the injured victims was in critical condition, which police confirmed.
“When a 12-year-old dies in our city — on our city streets … the whole village has a responsibility, and the whole village is impacted,” Dickens said, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Officer Anthony Grant, a representative for the Atlanta Police Department, told NBC News that all victims involved in the shooting were minors.
Grant said the incident report with the specific ages of the injured victims is still being processed.
There was no information immediately available on a possible suspect, Grant said, adding that the incident is still under investigation.
Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum also said Sunday that all those involved knew one another, WXIA reported.
The shooting took place on one of the busiest shopping weekends of the year near the outdoor Atlantic Station mall, one of the city’s most popular.
The gunfire erupted on an adjacent freeway overpass of the Downtown Connector, near 17th Street, after off-duty police and mall personnel escorted the teens off the property for unruly behavior and violations of a curfew set by the shopping center, according to WXIA and remarks Atlanta Police Lt. Germain Dearlove gave at a news conference.
Atlantic Station’s website notes minors visiting the mall must be accompanied by parents or guardians after 3 p.m., and that groups of four or more young people will be “dispersed.”
A witness to the shooting told WXIA that as many as 30 rounds could be heard.
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