Witness follows, shoots suspect after seeing him stab driver to death at Atlanta gas station

ATLANTA — A witness followed and shot a suspect who police say stabbed a driver to death outside an Atlanta gas station.

Atlanta police told Channel 2 they responded to a stabbing and shooting call next to each other on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive around 6 a.m. Monday.

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When they arrived, they found a man in his 30s stabbed multiple times at the Texaco gas station. He later died at Grady Memorial Hospital. Police also found a man shot down the street near the Seven Court Apartments.

According to police, a driver stopped at the gas station and came back to his SUV to find a man inside it. Police said the man stabbed the driver multiple times and took off.

A witness to the stabbing decided to follow the man down the street. Police said the two got into a confrontation and the stabbing suspect lunged at the witness with a knife. Police said the witness fired his gun at the suspect and shot him at least once.

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The witness is downtown being interviewed. The suspect is at Grady Memorial Hospital for evaluation.

Channel 2′s Kristen Holloway was and apartment complex near where the shooting happened. She talked to a witness who saw it all unfold as she was getting her grandchildren ready for school.

“When I came out the door, I saw a guy laying in the street shot in the leg,” Michelle Upshaw said. She said this was not the first shooting outside of her apartment. Just two weeks ago, bullets came flying through her bedroom window.

“It was, ‘Boom! Boom! Boom!’ I rolled out the bed on the floor,” Upshaw said. “If I had bene up taking my medicine at the time like I usually do, I’d be dead right now. I’m so tired of this. It don’t make no sense. They need to put these guns down.”

Police they are interviewing the witness to determine if he will face any charges.

“We just have to hear his story. Just from the accounts we’re hearing, right now preliminary, it may look like he was doing the right thing,” Deputy Chief Charles Hampton. Jr. said. “Obviously we don’t encourage anyone to get that involved, but if the circumstances is that an individual is coming toward him with a weapon, he does have a right to defend himself.”

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