AUSTELL, Ga. — Police in Cobb County say a dispute inside a pet store led to a shooting in the parking lot.
It happened in Austell on Veterans Memorial Highway.
Channel 2 Cobb County Bureau Chief Michele Newell was at the shop, AniMart Pets, where the customer and accused shooter Marcus Smith came back three times, guns in hand.
To really paint a picture of how dangerous it was, customers from other businesses and witnesses said they saw numerous shell casings, both from a pistol and a shotgun, in the parking lot.
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Police told Newell that Smith and his girlfriend were looking at reptiles inside the pet store before they got into an argument with employees and were kicked out.
Curtis Coleman, who has a business in the same Austell shopping plaza, has welcomed customers there for a year.
“You come in with a concept, we can make it happen,” Coleman said. “We are in it because we like what we do.”
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Coleman told Channel 2 Action News that he was working on a design when he heard a sound he’d never heard in that area.
“I heard the shots and when I heard them, I stopped what I was doing,” he said.
Then he walked outside.
“We heard that somebody was shooting and they was like ‘don’t stand right there, that’s where the shell casings were,’” Coleman said.
Police told Newell that the shooting happened after Smith and his girlfriend were kicked out of AniMart. According to a warrant, Smith fired six shots from a pistol near the business and while people were around. Then, police said he came back with a shotgun and fired a round into the air.
Officers said they intentionally hid in plain sight to safely arrest Smith when he came back a third with, again with a gun.
Coleman told Channel 2 Action News that he was thankful nobody got hurt.
“If it happened all the time, it would be a problem,” Coleman said.
Police told Newell that an employee who literally kicked Smith out of the store and caused him to fall to the ground pulled a gun out on him after he saw Smith reach for his weapon.
They said Smith and his girlfriend are known to come to the store and cause problems.
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