Georgia Walmart shooting: 1 shot outside Atlanta-area store as panicked shoppers flee for the exits

Police in Georgia say one person has suffered a gunshot wound after a shooting erupted outside an Atlanta-area Walmart store, where witnesses inside reported panicked shoppers fleeing for the exits. 

The incidenton on Wednesday at the Walmart Supercenter in Marietta happened about two weeks after a mass shooting unfolded at one of the company’s stores in Chesapeake, Virginia, leaving six people dead. 

Cobb County Police Department Deputy Chief Ben Cohen told reporters Wednesday that officers responded to a “report of an active shooter” at the Marietta store, but “soon after arrival, it was determined that the shooting was between two separate groups in the exterior area of the Walmart Automotive Center.” 

At least one person was shot and transported to a local hospital, and police have taken into custody several people from the two groups, he added. 

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The circumstances leading up to the shooting are unclear, but Cohen said both sides knew each other and had an altercation. 

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Gail Parks, who was inside the Walmart when the incident happened, told Fox5 Atlanta that, “I [heard] this guy yelling ‘Active shooter! Active shooter!’ and he was flying down the aisle running as hard as he could.” 

“Walmart employees did a good job getting everyone out, keeping them safe,” she said. 

 

“They were screaming ‘Active shooter! Active shooter!’ and immediately everyone stopped, grabbed their stuff and started running,” added Melody Hipps, another shopper. 

“We were responding as if it was an active shooter inside the store because that was the initial information we had, and we did evacuate the store as our normal protocol,” Cohen said.