Shooting during ball game at Atlanta park leaves 1 dead and 5 wounded, including 6-year-old
CNN/Stylemagazine.com Newswire | 8/8/2022, 12:47 p.m.
Originally Published: 08 AUG 22 11:11 ET
By Chris Boyette, CNN
(CNN) -- A shooting during a ballgame at an Atlanta park Sunday left one man dead and five people wounded, including a 6-year-old who was in critical condition, Atlanta police said.
The violence began during a baseball or softball game at Dunbar Recreational Center inside Rosa L. Burney Park in southwest Atlanta around 7 p.m. Sunday, Deputy Chief Charles Hampton said. The game was interrupted by an argument that escalated to an exchange of gunfire, and six people were shot, he said.
A man in his 30s was shot and killed, while a 6-year-old was struck and transported to Children's Egleston Hospital in critical condition, Hampton said. The other four victims were in stable condition, he said.
Police are still investigating what happened and what relationship, if any, the six victims had to each other, Hampton said.
"As we've said countless times, we're just asking the citizens just to find a way to resolve conflict without weapons. We're just asking people to step away, we're asking people just to let bygones be bygones," Hampton said.
"Any time that we have any tragedy like this -- any death is a tragedy -- then as we have kids that are also involved ... This is not a place for gunplay. So, we're just asking everyone to leave the guns at home."
The shooting represents the 18th mass shooting in Georgia this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which defines a mass shooting as any incident in which four or more people are shot, excluding the gunman.
As of July 30, there have been 88 homicides in Atlanta this year, a 9% increase from the same point last year, according to Atlanta Police data. Aggravated assaults, a category that includes non-fatal shootings, are also up 4% this year compared to this point last year, the data shows.