Boaters' window shot out while cruising on Lake Lanier

HALL COUNTY, Ga. — Deputies are looking for a shooter who fired into a moving boat on Lake Lanier Saturday afternoon. Now, people say they are worried it could happen again.

Witnesses said deputies told them the shot appears to have come from a high-powered rifle.

The boat's windshield was blown out and there is some suspicion that a silencer may have been used.

"I thought somebody got mad at somebody and pulled out a gun, but they said it was coming from over there," boater Rick Krenek told Channel 2's Wendy Halloran. "I saw the window. It was a side window blown out."

Krenek said he saw the people on board as they pulled into the Burton Mill Park boat ramp around 1:30 p.m. Saturday.

He told Halloran that the people on board looked terrified.

“They said it was a high-powered rifle,” Krenek said. “And they said no one could hear the shot so that was weird.”

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Law enforcement officers searched by land, water and air Saturday afternoon for evidence of a shooter looking toward Blackberry Lane, which is across the lake, where the boaters thought the shot was fired from, but no one was found.

Krenek said he and his wife have been coming to the spot for a decade.

He told Halloran that he’s glad she wasn’t with him Saturday and thinks it’s sickening somebody would do such a thing and risk innocent lives.

“You don’t know what people are doing,” Krenek said.

He’s not alone.

“I am shocked. We are here to enjoy the day, a beautiful day,” boater Kenan Ozbey said.

Ozbey told Halloran he uses the boat ramp to paddle board. He’s now feeling scared and vulnerable.

“I don’t know what to do now. Should we get in the water or not? Because he’s not going to miss us if he’s still on the loose,” Ozbey said.

The Hall County Sheriff’s Office said anyone with information about the incident is asked to call them at 770-531-6885 or 911.

Cox Media Group