Posted on 01/22/2022 6:26:47 AM PST by devane617
A stray bullet struck and killed an English astrophysicist while he was inside an Atlanta-area apartment, authorities say.
Matthew Willson, 31, of Chertsey, Surrey, England, was visiting his girlfriend in the United States when he was hit by a bullet that pierced the wall of the apartment. The shooting happened early Sunday morning, only three days into his visit.
“He was supposed to be here for three months because we’ve been long distance for a while,” Katherine Shepard, his girlfriend of three years, told WSB-TV. “I picked him up from the airport, took him to his favorite eating location, and the next day, he’s gone.”
Shepard, whose apartment is in the Atlanta suburb of Brookhaven, who told the television station that the couple woke up on Jan. 16 to the sound of more than 30 gunshots coming from an apartment complex directly behind Shepard’s. A bullet traveled through Shepard’s wall, hitting Willson, she said.
“I held him for another 20 minutes while we waited for the ambulance,” she said. “And while we were waiting, there were more gunshots fired.”
Police were in the vicinity pursuing reports of gunfire when the 911 call from Shepard came in. Sgt. Jake Kissel of the Brookhaven criminal investigations division said that once officers arrived at the scene, they rendered aid until paramedics arrived.
“Dr. Willson was transported to a local trauma center where he succumbed to his injuries,” Kissel said in a statement. The shooting appeared to be a “random act involving individuals participating in the reckless discharge” of firearms.
Willson was being mourned by family, friends and his alma mater, the University of Exeter.
(Excerpt) Read more at mypanhandle.com ...
How do you drive an apartment?
Buckhead has the right idea.
Another Dim city.
Actually, the video does contain enough nonverbal information to pin down the general location:
- Graphic showing where Brookhaven is within northwest Georgia area.
- The label under the reporter giving the street intersection.
- Image of the apartment complex’s sign.
The TV station report also gives other information verbally:
- Not the first shooting incident. There was one in December that recorded a family van driving through along with gunfire sounds.
- They (the hosting family) didn’t take the possible danger seriously and felt the building’s structure was sufficiently solid to protect them.
To be honest, the factors in this case don’t necessarily compute with immediately blaming it on the “Amish.” (Yeah, I initially bit down hard on that hook, too.):
- Repeated (second time at same location in two months)
- Massive random gunfire (30 shots fired)
- Middle class victims (deceased and GF both have college degrees)
- Location (historic (1810), small (@55k), independent city (since 2012), majority white (@55% white, 27% Hispanic, 12% black (2020 Census), not rich but not dirt poor either (average household income is $52k with both adults probably working outside the home))
City Wikipedia entry:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brookhaven,_Georgia?wprov=sfti1
(The only odd data point in the Brookhaven entry is the male to female ratio in the population is heavily skewed toward the male: 1.21 to 1 (overall) and 1.25 to 1 (18+). (A balanced population has an adult sexes ratio of 49% male, 51% female (1 to 1.04). Why so many excess males ???)
Going to place the “jumping to conclusions” switch in the “off” position on this one and see what actual facts security videos and detective work turn up.
Is that supposed to somehow make the situation better?! Over thirty rounds? Were they having a shooting range practice session in the parking lot?!
The original article said that it was in Brookhaven. I know the area, and surrounding areas, well. But Brookhaven is 12 sq. miles, and there is considerable difference between the well-heeled mansions around the country club vs. the many old apartments off of Buford Highway that are full of illegals, say.
This is mostly a gripe about modern journalism. They failed to answer a key W question, Where?, to my satisfaction.
DeKalb government has had crap ambulance service for a long time. I could bore you with detail over a two beer lunch, and beyond, on that one. And a friend of mine could pick up from there.
Probably the part down near Buford Highway. Thanks.
Heavily Hispanic illegal demographic in the vicinity.
The more antisocial parts of Brookhaven tend to be Hispanic illegals, not Amish. I am pretty sure this is Cross Keys High School, check the demographics: “For the 2016–2017 school year the student body was 86% Hispanic, 6% Black, 7% Asian, and 1% White. It is the most culturally diverse high school in the state, with students from 65 countries who speak 75 different languages.”
Our diversity is our strength.
The projects are next door. Got it. That might be why the place the girlfriend is staying at is "cheap", I bet. It's probably expensive to live in the nicer areas like Buckhead, but even there the crime rate is going up (we've all read stories).
It is the strays one has to look out for as long as the natives are firing them. The one with your name on it, not so much. It is the “To Whom It May Concern” ones you have to watch.
I lived in Brookhaven from 2008-2009. The area has gone downhill since then. I would NOT choose to live inside the perimeter again. Alpharetta, Stone Mountain, Marietta, Sandy Springs are all OK. Not Atlanta proper.
“I picked him up from the airport, took him to his favorite eating location, and...”
Favorite eating location. Who talks like that?
early eighties I lived at briarcliff and druid hills, just down the street from Brookhaven. even then it was going down. drove buford hwy a year or so ago and hood hood hood from end to end
Do you think that the single male Hispanic illegals also account for the extraordinary male to female demographic imbalance?
To give you a perspective on how out of whack the 1.21:1 and 1.25:1 ratios are, here is an excerpt from the Wikipedia article on Chinese population demographics:
“Gender balance
Future challenges for China will be the gender disparity. According to the 2010 census, males account for 51.27% of China’s 1.34 billion people, while females made up 48.73% of the total. The sex ratio (the number of males for each female in a population) at birth was 118.06 boys to every 100 girls (54.14%) in 2010, higher than the 116.86 (53.89%) of 2000, but 0.53 points lower than the ratio of 118.59 (54.25%) in 2005. In most Western countries the sex ratio at birth is around 105 boys to 100 girls (51.22%).”
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_China?wprov=sfti1
Note: The Western male to female percentages at birth (51/49) reverses by adulthood to 49/51 due to the higher mortality rate among boy infants and children.
More details on the shooting:
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