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Employees fed up after bullet hits barbershop during gunfight
One barbershop's employees are fed up at the string of violence in their northwest Atlanta neighborhood. In the latest event, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said Atlanta police officers shot and killed a man they saw firing a gun on Friday night across from a Chick-fil-A. One of those bullets hit the business.
ATLANTA - The Georgia Bureau of Investigation said Atlanta police officers shot and killed a man they saw firing a gun on Friday night across from a Chick-fil-A in northwest Atlanta.
As bullets were flying, a nearby barber shop was caught in the crossfire.
"We just replaced a window yesterday, and we just got a bullet in our door and so now we got to replace a door," said Sabir Grant, a barber at K.O. Barber Shop.
He has worked as a barber on Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive for the past 10 years, but he said things have gotten worse recently.
"This has never been like this," Grant said. "There always has been something going on which is in every area, but I'm telling you after that gun law changed, it seems like it got very intense."
The latest ‘intense’ situation happened Friday night just before 9 p.m.
Police close a section of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard on Oct. 28, 2022, in Atlanta. (FOX 5 Atlanta)
"There was a running gun battle here on MLK. Officers exited their vehicles and encountered an individual actively discharging his weapon," said Deputy Chief Charles Hampton Jr.
Investigators said officers opened fire after repeatedly ordering the man to drop his weapon. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation said 35-year-old Willie Williams was killed. No officers were injured.
"Right now, it's unknown if the injury was the result of the officers' gunfire due to the fact that he was actively engaged in a previous gun battle," Hampton Jr. said.
This shooting was the latest in a string of violence in the area. On Wednesday, a KFC employee was hurt in a shooting less than a quarter mile away. On Thursday, a man was killed about a mile away on Joseph E. Boone Boulevard.
Back at the barber shop, Grant said a lot of the problems in the area are caused by people who do not live here. He said he wants the police to do more.
"I would just like to see them more concerned about pressing matters since we do live in a situation now where guns are very accessible," Grant said.
Grant said the increase in violence looks bad on them even though they are innocent in all of this.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is looking into the officer-involved shooting. Atlanta police didn't explain what they think happened before officers arrived.