Georgia mayor shot after driver opens fire on car as he’s leaving restaurant

LAGRANGE, Ga. — A Georgia mayor says that weeks after he gave a speech about gun violence, he was shot in a drive-by.

It happened in a metro area city where he stopped to have dinner.

Channel 2′s Tom Jones traveled to Pineview to speak to Mayor Brandon Holt about his frightening ordeal.

That’s where he learned Holt is walking around with evidence of the shooting inside him.

“I have a moving bullet in me,” Holt said.

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Holt told Channel 2 Action News that it was OK because he still has his life.

“At that moment I really thought my life was gone.” Holt said, pointing to the left side of his stomach. “I got hit right here.”

The shooting happened on Aug.11 on Lafayette Parkway in Lagrange.

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Holt had traveled from Alabama and stopped at a restaurant for a late dinner. He had just left the restaurant and was about to head to his hotel in McDonough when a car, possibly a dark-colored Dodge Charger, pulled up beside him.

“And next thing you know they came up on the left side of me and just started roaring the motor,” he said.

Holt said he thought the driver wanted to race. That’s when he heard several gunshots.

“It was over 8,” Holt said.

He told Channel 2 Action News the driver was trying to kill him.

He swerved and managed to park and called 911. That’s when he noticed the blood.

“From seeing the blood I actually thought I was about to just die there,” he recalled.

Holt wonders if the shooting was gang-related, but police said there’s no evidence that it was. Holt said officers told him it may have been a case of mistaken identity.

Holt said what’s ironic is just a few weeks before he was shot, he dedicated a bench in a city park in Pineview to a man killed trying to break up a fight.

“I did a big speech on that day,” he said. It was about working to stop gun violence. Then gun violence found him.

“It was very traumatizing. Especially I’ve never, ever imagined being shot,” he said.

Holt said doctors don’t want to remove the bullet right now because it keeps moving. He says he wants the shooter caught. Police said they are actively investigating the shooting but have no suspects right now.

Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to call the LaGrange Police Department.

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