Fourth of July weekend shootings leave four dead and more than 20 others injured

The Fourth of July weekend, already marred by the cancellation of traditional events due to the COVID-19 pandemic, took a deadly turn as four people died and 20 others were injured as gun violence flared across the city.
A $10,000 reward is being offered in the shooting of Secoriea Turner, the 8-year-old shot inside her family’s car just around the corner from where Rayshard Brooks was gunned down by a police officer. The family was trying to avoid barricades set up by protesters at University Avenue and Pryor Road just before 10 p.m. on July 4 when they were confronted by a group of men with guns. Two of the men opened fire on the car striking and killing Secoriea.
On Auburn Avenue, a street party turned deadly around 1 a.m. on July 5 after an altercation between pedestrians and a vehicle ended in gunfire. Fourteen people were shot and two later died. The incident was captured on cell phones and posted to social media showing hundreds of people in the street dancing, watching fireworks, and cars doing donuts in the streets around partygoers.
While those two incidents grabbed headlines – along with a group of protesters who vandalized the Georgia Department of Public Safety headquarters on United Avenue – there were other incidents of gun violence across the city.
According to Atlanta Police Department reports, there were numerous gun-related crimes on July 4 – 5.
Around 11:30 p.m. on July 4, a man and woman were wounded after apparently confronting a group of people setting off fireworks in front of their home on Hardee Street in the Edgewood neighborhood.
Shortly thereafter, five people were wounded in a drive-by shooting on Lakewood Avenue around 11:45 p.m. in the southeast Atlanta neighborhood of Lakewood Heights.
At 12:50 a.m. on July 5, a man was wounded following an argument between two males over one of them talking to the other’s girlfriend in the 400 block of Edgewood Avenue.
At 4 a.m. on July 5, APD officers responded to a call near the corner of 7th Street and Etheridge Drive where a man was found shot in the leg.
On Sunday evening just after 7 p.m., police responded to another shooting at University Avenue and Pryor Road. A 53-year-old man was shot and killed and two others wounded. We’re awaiting a full report from APD, so check back for details.
All the incidents are still under ongoing investigation, according to APD reports.
Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said during a July 5 news conference about the murder of Secoriea Turne that there had been 75 shootings in the city over the last several weeks and called for an end to the gun violence.
She said the violence taking place had nothing to do with the embattled Atlanta Police Department and its officers. “These are members of the community shooting each other,” Bottoms said. “Enough is enough.”
“This random wild, wild west shoot ’em just because you can has got to stop,” the mayor said. “You can’t blame this on a police officer, or the criminal justice system. This is about some people carrying some weapons who shot up a car with a baby in the car.”