Chaos erupted on an Atlanta street following the crash of a vehicle that had slammed into a shuttle bus from a nearby hotel.
On Monday night, police were involved in a shootout near a hotel in downtown Atlanta. Several police officers were involved in a shooting that has left one suspect dead as police officers raced for the cover of parked cars during the shooting spree. Chaos erupted soon after a traffic accident.
One suspect was left dead at the scene and another was arrested, reports The Atlanta Journal Constitution. Witnesses stated that there was chaos everywhere and people just started running from the scene. Witnesses describe the scene near the downtown Aloft Hotel on Spring Street as suddenly erupting with many police cruisers. Police jumped out with automatic weapons and began to surround the area.
Gunshots then immediately sounded from all directions when police jumped a nearby chain link fence that was in the hotel parking lot. In less than a minute witnesses saw a man shot and fall onto the ground. The incident, according to Atlanta police, began when an officer tried to stop a red Jeep from traveling the wrong way on West Peachtree Street. When the officer hailed the driver, the driver sped up and fled the scene.
Shortly after, the Jeep crashed into a pole. The police arrived and arrested the driver immediately. The passenger, however, escaped and ran behind the hotel. Moments later he was shot. The Jeep had originally crashed when it drove through a crowded intersection and collided with a shuttle bus from a nearby hotel. Following the crash, more gunfire erupted from various directions.
The Atlanta police department summoned their SWAT team and immediately cordoned off a couple of blocks around the original crash scene. The passenger who was shot was discovered with a .45 caliber handgun near him and the body was surrounded by empty bullet casings.
There were three Atlanta police officers involved in the shooting of the Jeep’s passenger. Neither the names of the officers or the passenger in the Jeep have been identified by authorities. Inside the Jeep the police found another handgun as well as a duffle bag containing marijuana.
