Suspect in double shooting not found in Lithonia home after SWAT standoff, police say

LITHONIA, Ga. - Two people were shot in a Lithonia neighborhood prompting a SWAT response to search for the possible suspect.

The call came in shortly before 12:30 p.m. in the 600 block of Lakes Circle in Lithonia. DeKalb County police say officers found a man and woman in their 20s suffering from gunshot wounds.

"I heard four shots go off," said JaBre Smith, who lives nearby.

"I seen a young man kind of hopping around like he was injured at the end of one of my neighbor’s driveway and another woman was laying on the ground like she was injured as well," said one resident.

Smith says he lives a few doors down from where the shooting happened. The US Army veteran says he saw the man and woman bleeding out in the street and immediately his instincts kicked in.

"The neighbors around, they didn’t really know what to do…I used to be in the military so I had a belt that was like a rope and I used it as like a tourniquet until the police came," Smith said.

Both were rushed to area hospital in serious condition.

Police at the time believed the shooter ran into a nearby home. The SWAT team was called in to in their efforts.

"I heard DeKalb County over a speaker multiple times telling them if there was someone else in the home to come out," one resident said.

Eventually, the SWAT team made entry and found no one inside the home.

"This is a really quiet street, we really don’t have any issues so for something like this to happen it was kind of disturbing," the resident said.

Details about the possible suspect were not released.

The investigation is being conducted by the DeKalb County Police Department’s Homicide Assault Unit.