Want to thank the members of the
press for being here this eveni.
You all have played an important role
today as we kept citizens both in Atlanta
and Cobb County informed asked for their
assistance as we sought the apprehension
of this very dangerous perpetra.
And thank you for returning tonight to again
update those of our various communities.
The Mayor spoke today of a a capable,
competent and brave response bye
1st Responder network that servd
not only the city, but this reg.
And I just want the men and womf
the Atlanta Police Department to know
those that are in our 901 cente,
our first responding officers or
tactical teams or investigators.
How proud, yet again I am of yof
the work that you have done tody
on behalf of the city.
And in the most dire of circumstances,
you have shown what you do dailr
the men and women that call this
city home and those that visit .
But if you look closely on the
earliest views from the crime s,
you saw not only the Atlanta Poe
Department responding, you saw .
Network of officers representing
multiple agencies who have traid
for this various outcome.
Mr.
Mayor over and over again that a
day that this tragedy should bel
the city that we would be ready
and I stand here today to tell u
that the first responder network
was there today for their city.
The Sheriff of Fulton County Sheriff Labatt,
the Georgia State Patrol,
the Marta Police Department,
Georgia Tech Police Department,
Georgia State University Marsha.
They were all on scene quickly executing
their active shooter protocol.
To stop the situation.
And then very shortly,
we were joined by the GB, I,
the FBI, the Secret Service,
as well as United States Marshall Services.
We sought to bring this person o
custody and that investigation n
showed us that this perpetrator had left
the city and remained a threat elsewhere.
And Sheriff and Hoosier,
I just want you to know that we
are a grateful city tonight for
your partnership and the efforts
of your law enforcement agency o
take this individual into custo.
And then?
This morning we celebrated the bravery of
Atlanta Fire Rescue not far from here,
as with their annual commemoratn
of Firefighters Day,
and to see the paramedics and firefighters
when we did not know where the shooter was.
That could easily have still ben
in the building around the cornr
to see our firefighters,
dismounter.
Trucks and Chief Smith go into t
situation.
But it wasn't the first time I've seen that,
Chief, because we had seen that
in training over and over again.
And today when it was necessary
to save lives,
we were very proud to see you a
strong partnership as we moved
into that dangerous situation.
And thank you.
At this time,
I'm going to ask our Deputy
Chief of Criminal Investigation,
Charles Hampton to come forward
to recap what has transpired
today, what we have learned from
the investigation and then Chied
Hoosier will come forward to oue
how his department led to the capture
of this perpetrator today. Chie.
Good evening. What we do know,
we know that shortly before noon
the subject entered into 1110 W
Peachtree Street and went to a
Medical Center inside the build.
It was shortly thereafter that
they he shot our first victim
and then the 1st 911 call came.
After that he spent about maybe
2 minutes inside the building
where he then exited on foot.
And and what we were able to pik
up on the camera network systems
that he went to a Shell gas stan
where he coming here at a vehic,
that car was pickup truck was lt
running unattended and he took that vehicle.
We were able to again use video
to obtain A tag and immediately
place that tag into our LPR sys,
our license plate reader system.
And so at that time,
we had to really do some work
to figure out where he was at.
There was a series of search warrants
drafted both here in Atlanta and
Cobb County because we were getg
information of residents and otr
locations that he may go to.
So that was done as well.
And then roughly around 12:30,
we received an alert from the LR
system that he was in Cobb Coun.
And so that again,
we were on the phone immediately
with COP to let them know that
this individual was somewhere
in this jurisdiction.
And as the Chief said,
we'll then let Chief Van Hooser
just kind of talk about what
happened in his jurisdiction.
But I would tell you that although we
may not known exactly where he ,
as soon as we were alerted that he was
out of our area of responsibili,
we contacted that local jurisdin
and that coordination took plac.
Good evening.
My name is Stuart Vanhooser.
I'm the police chief in Cobb Co,
just north of Atlanta.
And first of all,
I want to very much express
our collective condolences to
the families involved and know
that me personally and I'm sure
collectively from all of those o
were involved in today's incide,
that our prayers and thoughts
are with the families that
have been affected by this.
Of course we saw what was going,
on the news. We had heard through our
networks of what was going on in Atlanta.
When we discovered that the individual
had last been identified on a Fk
LPR camera in our jurisdiction.
Of course we sent officers to
that area and set up, you know,
not so much a perimeter,
but we began to look for the vee
and I will be honest with you.
First of all, let me apologize in advance.
I have not prepared a statement.
I have not had time to prepare a statement.
So what I am,
what I'm giving you guys is not
planned and I will probably make
a few mistakes and I'll probably
forget to thank some people.
But what I can tell you is this,
these are massively complex investigations
and information comes in so quickly and
it is so confusing and so contradicting
that we find that we are often.
Trying to go three or four different places
very quickly each seeming to be the suspect.
And so that was what was happening today.
We had it was a fairly chaotic scene.
We were being called to various locations
in that area about what appeared to be
legitimate sightings of this individual
and there was some fear of courn
the citizens in that area of co.
So our officers were
responding to those calls and.
I will say this,
If you rewind the hand of time four years,
we probably would not be where we are today.
Right now.
Technology played a huge role,
but technology doesn't do any gd
without people who are determind
to capture an individual that
would do something like this.
And today we saw where those two
things came together in an amazing way.
Nobody went home today.
Everybody stayed.
We have a fairly new real time e
center by a local company named Fusis.
A flock is a is a is a fairly new company,
it's a local company as well.
We have partnered with both of e
companies and they have broughts
some amazing tools as has the or
jurisdictions in the Atlanta ar.
Those tools are what really gots
the clues that we needed to make
this successful and the people.
That were getting those clues fm
that technology made this happe.
So
we had a lot of clues,
enough clues from both our real
time Crime Center and Flock to
have a pretty good instinct on
the calls that were coming in.
We had checked a building that e
knew that he had gone into and we had
cleared that building and we knew that
that he was not in that buildin.
That building was unoccupied.
It was being built.
It was very close to.
Truest Park and the battery,
which of course was very concerg
to us as that's many, many,
many people would be in that location.
So we were concerned about the
safety of our community in genel
but but particularly that one.
So the operators in our real time crime
center were were fielding many of these
calls and looking at them and trying to
determine which ones seemed legitimate,
which ones did not.
And most of that is a little bit of gut,
but it was also based on some oe
things that we were seeing on the map and
what made sense to the real time operators.
One real time operator in partir
saw now when one call come in literally
said I think this is going to be
him and that it was mostly inst,
but a lot of it did have to do with where
this call was coming in and where this
individual was supposed to be that real time.
Operator communicated with the .
Operator that was in the the cod
center with us and we prioritize that call
in the radio and we had some officers
both undercover and uniformed officers.
I believe if I have my facts cot
that an undercover officer was the one
that originally saw and confronted this
individual and was able to thene
backup from uniformed officers that came
in and took him into custody without.
Without incident, I would,
I would forget and I will forget some of
the people and organizations to thank.
But I can reiterate what Mayor
Dickens and Chief Sherbaum said.
And there's no reason to really
go back into all of it.
But I can tell you that it doest
work without a cooperative community,
a community that backs up the police,
that allows the police to take risks and
try to take violent people into custody.
We have a very,
very supportive.
Community in Cobb County,
a very supportive elected official group and
very supportive leadership and that's very,
very important for us.
We had great community members who were
calling us and giving us information.
We have a 911 center who has
shared their data with us.
We have a dot that.
Gave us information and and accs
to cameras that we did not have
previously and those cameras
proved extremely helpful Today.
That is where we got the precise location
of the building that he walked .
So the amazing cooperation betwn
many that you would not really
consider a public safety agencye
the Department of Transportatio.
And all the public safety agencs
in Cobb County,
the cities GSP helped us with or
watching with with a helicopter.
It's just it's just you can't really,
you can't really thank people
without missing someone.
But hats off to everybody who ws
involved in this and all of the foundation
of the technology that was laid.
And lastly,
I'll have to say that the communication
between agencies in metro Atlana
has probably never been this god
especially particularly from
the Atlanta Police Department.
Incredible outreach.
With Chief Sherbaum and and the
whole team here and we were here
just last week learning things
from the Atlanta Police Departm.
So thank you to everyone
who was involved in this.
We are of course honored to
have been a part of it and and
thank everyone who was involved.
Thank you.