Just after midnight on Saturday morning, a gunfight broke out between two Georgia police officers and a suspected gun store burglar, leaving two of them hurt.
Chief of the Smyrna officers Department Keith Zgonc stated during an early-morning news conference that Smyrna and Cobb County officers responded to a 911 call at 12:16 a.m. alleging a burglary at the Adventure Outdoors gun store along South Cobb Drive.
Located around 13 miles northwest of Downtown Atlanta, the vast 80,000 square foot store and range is situated.
According to Zgonc, when police came, they found an armed shooter inside the store. The gunman and the responding officers exchanged gunfire.
The Cobb County and Smyrna police departments’ officers opened fire again, killing the suspect. His true identity is still unknown.
During the shooting, two Smyrna Police Department officers were shot and hurt. After being taken to a nearby hospital, they are both recuperating from non-life-threatening wounds.
The business was then secured, and a SWAT squad was dispatched to make sure nobody else was inside. According to Zgonc, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation is there at the scene and is looking into the event.
Police weren’t sure, according to Zgonc, if the guy had broken into the store to take guns. At the time, the store was closed.
Stuart VanHoozer, the chief of Cobb County police, stated that it is extremely worrying that a suspect would shoot at law enforcement, pointing out that two policemen have been slain in metro Atlanta in recent weeks.
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Given the recent police shootings in the region and the nature of the store—which, according to the company website, stocks over 18,000 guns—he claimed there was a significant police response. The shop describes itself as the “world’s largest gun store.”
“We had a lot of officers come and that’s the reason that they came,” VanHoozer stated.
“I’m angry, it angers me that we have people that want to do this,” Zgonc continued.
