Five people are dead after a gunman opened fire at a home west of Atlanta Saturday, and some of the dead are children, authorities said. The shooter was also among the dead, the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office said.
Authorities were still trying to determine what happened at the home on Willow Tree Circle in a housing division in Douglas County, about 20 miles west of downtown Atlanta. Douglas County sheriff’s Lt. Glenn Daniel said there was a 911 call of shots fired at approximately 3 p.m., and when deputies arrived they found multiple people shot outside and inside the home.
The ages of the victims range from 7 years old to adults, but Daniel didn’t know how many of the slain were children and how many were adults, but said some of the fatalities were juveniles. Seven in all were shot, he said. The two who survived were juveniles who are being treated at a local hospital, Daniel said.
The identities of the victims were not immediately released. Daniel said investigators were trying to determine a motive Saturday.
This is a tough situation, any time you have children involved in a shooting or anything like that, or children hurt at all, it’s just tough. It pulls on your heart,” Daniel told reporters outside the scene. “It just don’t make no sense,”
Phil Helsel