A seemingly unprovoked frenzy of violence over the weekend through Atlanta’s posh Buckhead neighborhood highlighted what district officials see as a need for more security and public safety protocols as the recent surge in crime has scared some residents too scared to even pump gas in certain locations Fox News Fox Learned.
On Thursday, the Buckhead City Committee, formerly the Buckhead Exploratory Committee, will call for emergency hearings as part of its ongoing efforts to become a separate entity from the city of Atlanta, said Bill White, the group’s CEO and chairman.
“With everything that’s happened here, it’s just getting worse and worse,” White told Fox News on Wednesday. “So what we do about the murders that are going through the roof and the attempted murders and the lack of guidance and nothing – the madness continues – we are calling for urgent hearings on our city laws.”
White continued, “I’m saying we have three big problems and that’s all we have … crime, crime and crime.”
It wasn’t until this weekend that 41-year-old Andrew Worrell was a mile on his 5-mile walk when he was shot twice by a driver who then fled the scene.
Worrell, a father of three young children, was walking his neighborhood around 8:35 a.m. on Saturday when a silver Hyundai sedan rolled towards him, police and his wife, Anne Pearce Worrell, announced.
“The heavily tinted window rolled down and the guy pointed a gun at him and shot him,” Pearce Worrell wrote in a Facebook post after the shooting.
The gunman, identified by authorities as 22-year-old Gaelen Newsom, first shot Worrell in the leg and then fired another round when “Andrew turned around,” wrote Pearce Worrell. The second shot went through Andrew’s hip and into his ball joint, then into his lower abdomen before landing in his right hip, she continued.
Newsom then shot a third round at Andrew, but missed, she continued. He fled the scene, but Worrell was conscious and was able to give investigators a description of his attacker, police said.
Two other joggers were shot at in the area around the time of the shooting, but no others were injured, police said.
At a press conference later that day, Atlanta deputy police chief Charles Hampton Jr. said Newsom fell and seriously injured a man in his twenties who was taking out the trash. The victim has since had to undergo at least one operation because of his serious injuries.
Newsom was detained at the scene of the accident about a mile from the first shooting, police said. He was charged late Saturday with murder / attempted murder and triple aggravated assault and possession of a firearm while committing a crime.
On Sunday afternoon, a man was shot dead in the Intercontinental Hotel in Buckhead, the police said. The victim was admitted to a local hospital in critical condition but could not be rescued. His brother was later charged with the man’s death, police said.
As of May 28th, Atlanta murders were up 63% compared to 2020 compared to 2020, with 57 reported that year, police statistics show. The number of shootings across the city also increased 45%, from 208 in 2020 to 302 in 2021.
In Buckhead, Zone 2 of the Atlanta Police Department in particular, killings have increased 40% since May 29, since May 29, with seven this year and five in 2020, statistics show. That’s 133% more than the three that were reported at the same time in 2019.
But the murder rose 200% in the last available 28-day period, with two reported this year, compared to zero in the same period in 2020.
Gaelen Kahrlee Newsom (Fulton County Jail)
(Fulton County Jail)
The latest police statistics do not include gun violence from last weekend.
“People really believe that this is an emergency – that’s the message I’m getting – and that we live in a war zone,” White told Fox News. “My friends, they won’t go to the gas station to refuel, especially when they have the kids in the car.”
As part of Buckhead City Committee’s efforts to divorce Atlanta, White said its leaders plan to create their own police force to focus on community concerns.
“You will never hear us knocking the police. It’s not your fault,” White said when describing the insufficient number of officers assigned to the jurisdiction. He said this is causing problems for residents such as 911 calls in Buckhead not being adequately answered. “It’s life threatening. It’s unfathomable.”
When asked about the public’s perception of Buckhead’s search for more cops and police at a time when some in the nation are calling for police budgets to be cut, White said efforts against the police were falling on “deaf ears”.
“The diverse community of Buckhead hear this and say, ‘Go to hell’ … I’ve spoken to communities in Atlanta, to leaders, and, you know, to really tough crime areas in Atlanta … The only thing they’ll tell me and beg me for helping them is more police, not less police, “he continued.” The thing about crime is that it is color blind. It hits blacks, it hits whites … it has nothing to do with politics. “
In December, Buckhead cited a Bloomberg report announcing that it had been identified as one of the “100 richest zip codes in the country”. It was the only Georgia zip code that made the cut.
The Buckhead City Committee’s efforts are not the only neighborhood effort to improve public safety in the community.
In December, the Buckhead Community Improvement District (BCID) unveiled its Buckhead Security Plan, calling it “a blueprint for combating the rising crime rate in Buckhead.”
The plan does not provide for Buckhead to have its own police force, but calls for long and short term measures that include procedural changes and strategies to combat and thwart the rise in crime. It targets areas of crime such as street racing, “party house” crimes and overcrowding in local facilities, and “aims to increase support for the recruitment, training and retention of APD officials to reach full strength”.
“We are taking steps to reverse recent crime trends, hold lawbreakers accountable and restore citizens’ confidence in the safety of Buckhead,” said Jim Durrett, President of the Buckhead Coalition and chief executive officer of BCID, in a statement on the statement Time. Durrett was unavailable to speak to Fox News on Tuesday.
The safety plan was a joint effort by the Buckhead Coalition, the Atlanta Police Foundation, and councilors JP Matzigkeit and Howard Shook, among others.
Recent efforts to improve public safety include raising funds for three patrol cars to explore the neighborhood, setting up a weekday bicycle patrol program, hiring officers to monitor the area, and strengthening the network of security cameras.
Speaking to Fox News Tuesday, Councilor Shook said crime has been one of the top three issues in his 20 years as a representative for District 7, which covers Buckhead. He was also formerly the chairman of the Buckhead Neighborhood Alliance.
“I can tell you that crime, traffic and taxes are numbers one, two and three that I hear from voters. The order from one to three varies from year to year. The spread isn’t usually as big as it is now – pretty much the only thing I hear about is crime, “said Shook.” And then you fall way, way down to problem number two, which is infrastructure.
Buckhead’s security plan was launched about a year and a half ago after Shook called the beginning of the “unprecedented rise in crime” in the neighborhood.
“That has led the business community to band together and commit to investing private money in building up a city-wide police force that everyone knows is understaffed,” he said. “Buckhead is a huge commercial hub. It is arguably one of the largest retail entertainment hubs in the southeast.
He said he does not deny that other parts of the city have statistically higher crime rates than Buckhead, but stressed that the data shows that crime has gotten worse.
“My constituents do not compare zone 2 crime statistics with zone 5 crime statistics. They are human. They compare how they think about crime now and how they remember how they felt 10 years ago, “Shook said. “And I tell you, statistics show that your instincts and feelings are correct. In relative terms, it’s much worse here than it was 10 years ago.”
He later added that increasing local crime “tones our minds and feelings. I can tell you that it affects daily routines, travel routes and gas stations. Yes, I think there are many effects.”
Residents of the posh suburb of Atlanta are pushing for a separate police force, as crime rages in the "war zone": Neighbor | DAILY ATLANTA NEWS
A seemingly unprovoked frenzy of violence over the weekend through Atlanta's posh Buckhead neighborhood highlighted what district officials see as a need for
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