GSU plans weekend crackdown to prevent further violence near campus
ATLANTA - Georgia State University is taking action following a chaotic weekend near campus with shootings and drag racing.
GSU Police Chief Anthony Coleman says they are planning to step up their presence in the residential area in the upcoming weekend, where the bulk of the activity happened.
As large crowds gathered near campus on April 1, things quickly turned violent with several people jumping on top of a car, and then shots fired. Police arrested seven people.
"In my 31 years, there's never been a weekend like this," Chief Coleman said.
Chief Coleman says they will partner with several agencies including the Atlanta Police Department, Georgia State Patrol, Fulton County Sheriff's Office, and Georgia Tech Police Department to target potential offenders over the weekend.
"I want our students that are living on campus to just realize that if you bring an outside influence into Georgia State University, that doesn't have any type of history with Georgia State University, they do not care about Georgia State University. So, I want our students to care about Georgia State University and think about the outside influences that they're allowing to come onto the campus," he explained.
He said the first step was strengthening communication with non-university owned housing and neighboring areas.
"There were some things that happened this past weekend where we felt like maybe, if we communicated, we could have stopped some things from happening. We could have shut some parties down before they got started," Chief Coleman said.
"One of the biggest things some of these promoters were doing was saying, ‘OK, let’s meet at this parking lot here.’ So, we've reached out to some of those parking lots, and they were like, ‘No, you have full authority in this parking lot to shut it down,’" he added.
APD will also add more license plate readers in the area and install steel plates at intersections. The department will also work with the Atlanta City Council to make the housing area a no cruise zone.
In a letter posted on the school's website, President Brian Blake said in part:
Although we share our streets with non-GSU property owners and businesses, our university leadership finds this behavior unacceptable and we will do all in our power to stem this activity. The safety of our students is our top priority."
"We're going to get out this weekend and just make it uncomfortable for people to hang out and cause havoc around Georgia State University," Chief Coleman said.
The extra patrol already started on Thursday with ten extra officers in the housing area to make sure students are safe.