Couple shoots 3 people outside DeKalb grocery store, police say

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — Crime scene tape remained up late into the night Friday at the scene of a shopping center shooting.

Three would-be robbers are in the hospital after the couple they targeted pulled a gun and fought back.

"It was chaos," a witness told Channel 2's Carl Willis. "I saw the guy was shot. I saw him on the floor, shot."

The witness told Willis she came close to being caught right in the middle of a shootout herself.

[PHOTOS: Multiple people shot in grocery store parking lot, police say]

"I remember I forgot something, so I went back to the store and I heard shots," the witness said. "I just missed it."

Investigators said three people followed a couple out of the grocery store along Wesley Chapel Road and into the parking lot.

"We believe that there may have been some sort of crime that was intended to happen at that time, whether it was a robbery or a carjacking, we really don't know right now," said Shiera Campbell with the DeKalb County Police Department.

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But that group didn't count on the would-be victims being armed.

There was an exchange of gunfire, but police said two of those who were shot were the alleged suspects. Police identified those people as Andrew Banks , 23, and Austin Harris, 18.

The third person shot was an innocent bystander, police said.

One was checked into a hospital for help. The two others were found on scene.

"(The suspect) was conscious, but there was a lot of blood. There was a trail of blood. He must have dragged himself into Kroger," the witness told Willis.

As NewsChopper 2 flew overhead, its advanced high-definition camera spotted a handgun in the parking lot.

From the ground, Willis spotted multiple cars that were hit by stray bullets.

"There was a great risk of people being shot and a great risk of being killed,” Campbell said. "People are lucky that no one else was hit."

"It was awful. Really awful," the witness said.

Cox Media Group