Thank you, Chief and thank you again
to all of our partners here in law
enforcement for their cooperation
and professional work today.
As you can see, this is a group project.
This took multiple
jurisdictions working together,
highly trained officers who not
only found this suspect but brought
him into custody to stand trial.
So thanks to the professional and
trained law enforcement in our region,
this is a instance where justice
is the case of the day.
But that doesn't change the fact that
one woman died and there are four more
in the hospital just a few blocks away
from here fighting for their lives.
And I want to thank Grady Grady Hospital.
The care that they've given
immediately to those four individuals,
those those four women,
are now on the mend.
And that's because of the outstanding
work by our trauma center and those
medical professionals at Grady.
So we need to talk about the
shooting that happened today.
This was a horrible act of gun violence,
but equally horrifying is that we know
that this is not unique in our country.
In 2023 alone,
there have been nearly 200 reported
instances of mass shootings in America.
We have taken extraordinary
measures in Atlanta to bring
down violent crime in this city.
We've enhanced our policing.
We've invested in non policing
activities that make our city safer.
We've invested in the root causes
of crime at the same time that we're
cracking down on repeat offenders
who commit violence in our community.
Those measures have produced great results.
Before today, we were down 26% in
violent crimes across our city.
And those are not just stats.
Those are real people,
real people who are not going to
be victims of violence.
But we know there is more that
needs to be done.
But what more can we do as a city?
What more can we do as a community,
as a state,
or as a nation?
We have a national epidemic on gun
violence in America and we have
a serious problem with how we are
treating mental health in this nation.
One thing we know is that it
doesn't have to be this way.
Other nations have challenges
with mental health.
But.
They don't seem to have nearly the level
of gun violence that we do in America.
So it's the guns that we're talking about.
We live in a state and in a nation
where people have easy and wide
access to firearms that are used
to kill other fellow Americans.
We need immediate action that
meets the urgency of this crisis.
We need universal background
checks and we need to close the
gun purchase loopholes.
We need better red flag laws
that allow judges to remove guns
from people who pose risks.
We need to do everything we can
we can to ensure that folks who
shouldn't have guns can't get them.
There's a lot of talk about
Second Amendment rights.
We need more actions about
the rights of our citizens
to go about their lives,
to be able to go to a doctor's office,
to a supermarket, to a gas station.
To their school without the
threat of being gunned down.
We all need to do our part to
stop these horrific acts from
happening again and again.
So you will be hearing more from me on this,
but today we are grateful for the women
and men who brought this to a close,
the team of people that back up,
the team of people that you see standing
here and our prayers are with the victims.
And with the families that
were injured or killed today.