Aiexpress – Multiple suspects are being sought after a 15-year-old was shot while police fired gunfire with an “unruly crowd” of up to 600 people outside the Six Flags Over Georgia amusement park in suburban Atlanta, according to authorities.
The incident occurred around 6:15 p.m. Saturday on a service road just outside the 290-acre theme park’s site in Austell, roughly 17 miles northwest of Atlanta, according to the Cobb County Police Department.
Before the shooting, Six Flags Over Georgia security sent Cobb County police officers to the park to assist in dispersing “a sizeable, unruly crowd” of 500 to 600 people “running through the park and fighting,” according to a statement released to Atlanta ABC affiliate WSB-TV.
Authorities claim that when police arrived, they found a sizable crowd leaving the park, which was celebrating its first day of the season.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation, which is leading the investigation into the shooting, said in a statement Sunday afternoon that preliminary information shows Cobb County officers were responding to assist with crowd control near the park’s entrance “after several fights had taken place amongst patrons” leaving the park.
“At some point, multiple people began shooting, hitting an unoccupied CCPD-marked patrol car,” the GBI said. “As officers identified where the shots were coming from, they pursued people who had fled into the woods.” During the incident, one CCPD officer fired his firearm, striking a youngster.
According to the GBI, the wounded adolescent was transported to Grady Hospital in Atlanta and was in critical condition on Sunday. The teen’s name was not revealed.
According to the GBI, officers recovered a firearm near where they found the wounded adolescent.
“It is really upsetting that groups of underage youth are disrupting our community’s public activities around the region. Six Flags Over Georgia said in a statement that, like other events in the area, it is committed to keeping this type of violence outside of our park and off its land.
Six Flags does not own or operate the South Service Road, where the incident occurred, according to theme park officials.
“However, we join our community and the Atlanta region in our commitment to safety and security. We won’t put up with that type of activity here,” park officials said, adding that the park has “state-of-the-art security systems and metal detection.”
“Every guest is expected to follow our strict code of conduct and anyone unwilling to follow that code of conduct is unwelcome,” park officials added.
