How Many Cartersville Police Does It Take... - to investigate a shooting? Apparently, quite a bit. It seems that a few men brought baseball bats to a gun fight at a Chevron station in Cartersville, GA, on Friday evening. According to a bystander, who was at a QuikTrip just across the street when the fight broke out, and still there later when I drove by, there was a bunch of screaming, cursing, and then about 10 shots fired. Three men had tried to pick a fight with a fourth man, and when the motley group brandished their weapons, the lone opponent pulled a gun and emptied it into the other three. A State Trooper, who heard the shots from the QuikTrip, apprehended the gunman without incident, and summoned backup to assist with the wounded.
I came upon the scene while on my way to appropriate some Blizzards, and found about five ambulances, 10-12 police cars, the entire gas station blocked off with crime scene tape, a shot-up car sitting at the pump with the nozzle still in the tank, and more officers arriving by the minute. There were a couple dozen onlookers at the QuikTrip, where I got my eyewitness account of the goings-on. The cops were searching the pavement around the pumps, probably for bullet shells or the like. What I'm trying to figure out is why, exactly, did it take that many police officers to conduct the investigation. The "perp" surrendered calmly to a single officer, no one was killed as far as I can find out, and if anyone else was involved, they were on the losing team's side and fleeing.
I'm going to try and find out if the other participants, if any, were caught, if there are going to be charges against the gunman, who appears to have been simply defending himself, and if there are going to be charges against the losers. Hopefully, this info is in the pulp referenced by the above-linked article. Maybe they'll also have an accurate count of how many of those police officers were just there to turn the ladder.
UPDATE - While the local newspaper in Cartersville references the losers as hispanics, WSB-TV in Atlanta is claiming that race was indeed a factor. They also confirmed that at least two others were involved, and that no one has died as a result of the incident. I didn't see any hispanics gawking from the QuikTrip that night, so I wonder how the "racial disputes" came into the equation.
I came upon the scene while on my way to appropriate some Blizzards, and found about five ambulances, 10-12 police cars, the entire gas station blocked off with crime scene tape, a shot-up car sitting at the pump with the nozzle still in the tank, and more officers arriving by the minute. There were a couple dozen onlookers at the QuikTrip, where I got my eyewitness account of the goings-on. The cops were searching the pavement around the pumps, probably for bullet shells or the like. What I'm trying to figure out is why, exactly, did it take that many police officers to conduct the investigation. The "perp" surrendered calmly to a single officer, no one was killed as far as I can find out, and if anyone else was involved, they were on the losing team's side and fleeing.
I'm going to try and find out if the other participants, if any, were caught, if there are going to be charges against the gunman, who appears to have been simply defending himself, and if there are going to be charges against the losers. Hopefully, this info is in the pulp referenced by the above-linked article. Maybe they'll also have an accurate count of how many of those police officers were just there to turn the ladder.
UPDATE - While the local newspaper in Cartersville references the losers as hispanics, WSB-TV in Atlanta is claiming that race was indeed a factor. They also confirmed that at least two others were involved, and that no one has died as a result of the incident. I didn't see any hispanics gawking from the QuikTrip that night, so I wonder how the "racial disputes" came into the equation.
posted by koalabear at
4:06 PM
