Atlanta councilwoman adds to reward to catch campus shooter
ATLANTA — An Atlanta city councilwoman is pleading with the public to cooperate with police in their search for the suspected gunman who opened fire on a crowd of about 200 people outside a university library last week.
The Aug. 20 gunfire wounded four college students, all of whom survived.
“Somebody out there knows who this person is,” Councilwoman Cleta Winslow said Sunday. “They’re on videotape.”
Winslow announced a $3,000 donation to Crime Stoppers for any information leading to an arrest. That brings the reward total to $5,000.
“We’re hoping that that will start getting someone in the community talking. They haven’t said anything, and I’m sending a plea out to the public,” Winslow told reporters at a Sunday news conference.
Police have surveillance video of the person they believe fired the shots outside the library at Clark Atlanta University, but so far there have been no arrests.
The video shows the suspect speaking with two other men while wearing a tan Gucci hat, a white T-shirt, gray sweat pants and gray New Balance sneakers.
Investigators do not believe the suspect is a student, Atlanta police Officer Anthony Grant said in an email Monday. However, they believe he does frequent the area where the shooting occurred, he said.
The four women were shot after police say an argument between two groups led to the gunfire. The victims were identified by police as Erin Ennis, 18, of Powder Springs, Georgia; Maia Williams-MClaren, 18, of Boston; Elyse Spencer, 18, of Rochester, New York; and Kia Thomas, 19, whose hometown wasn’t available.
The block party was celebrating the end of new student orientation and happened the night before the first day classes for the fall semester.
Winslow earned her master’s degree from the Clark Atlanta’s School of Social Work, according to her Atlanta City Council biography. On Sunday, she spoke to members of the public, pleading with them to help police.
“Look into your heart and just say ‘I wouldn’t want that to happen to my child, to my loved one,’” she said.
