STONE MOUNTAIN—A Georgia teenager is accused of using a pellet gun to shoot and wound children on an Atlanta-area elementary school playground.
Atlanta police told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that an arrest warrant has been issued for the teen on charges of aggravated assault. Authorities didn’t immediately release the teen’s identity.
#Breaking
Multiple sources just told me that police have charged a teenage boy accused of firing a pellet gun at multiple Wynbrooke Elementary School students w/ nine counts of aggravated assault; each count represents an injured student.unclear if the juvenile is in custody.— Michael Seiden (@SeidenWSBTV) April 30, 2019
The teen is accused of shooting at least nine students on Thursday at Wynbrooke Elementary in Stone Mountain.
The children were treated at hospitals for wounds that were not life-threatening. The DeKalb County School District said that the shots appeared to come from off school grounds.
WXIA-TV reports school district police have said investigators searched the teen’s home and found the pellet gun believed to have been used in the shooting.
Authorities haven’t said what motivated the attack.
UNC Charlotte Campus Gunman Identified
Police have identified the suspect in a fatal campus shooting as a 22-year-old man.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police issued a statement late Tuesday identifying the suspect as Trystan Andrew Terrell. They say he’s in custody with charges pending.
Authorities have said he used a pistol to open fire on students in a classroom building at UNC-Charlotte, killing two and wounding four—three of them critically, authorities said.
His grandfather, Paul Rold of Arlington, Texas, says Terrell had moved to Charlotte two years ago with his father.
Rold told The Associated Press that the actions don’t sound like his grandson. He said: “This is not in his DNA.”
As police led him away in handcuffs, he tilted his head back and smiled at the cameras.
Two people have died and four people are hurt after a shooting on UNC Charlotte’s campus, Medic confirmed. Police have taken Trystan Terrell, 22, into custody. He is a former student. https://t.co/OrDqOiC6Y5 pic.twitter.com/A46MLCk9PI
— WFMY News 2 (@WFMY) May 1, 2019
Terrell is facing several charges, including two counts of murder, four counts of attempted murder, four counts of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill, possession of a firearm on educational property, and discharging a firearm on educational property, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department said.
Gun Sales
Gun sales increased more than 80 percent between 1999 and 2017, according to The DataFace, a San Francisco data analysis company, which based its estimates on FBI background check data.
There was an estimated 11 percent decline in gun sales in 2017 accompanying the election of President Donald Trump, who has largely supported gun rights, The DataFace reported.
“With the prospect of relaxed gun laws for the next four years, demand has diminished and guns sales in the U.S. have waned,” the company stated.
It’s not clear though how long the phenomenon persevered. The Trump administration moved on Dec. 18 to ban bump stocks, which allow semi-automatic rifles to fire almost as rapidly as automatic ones. At least some gun rights advocates opposed the ban.
The CNN Wire contributed to this report.
