Shooting outside an Atlanta-area Walmart leaves at least 1 injured, police say

By Ray Sanchez and Melissa Alonso, CNN

At least one person was injured Wednesday in a shooting outside a Walmart near the Atlanta suburb of Marietta, Cobb County Police said.

Police in a tweet initially reported several injuries, but Deputy Chief Ben Cohen later said at least one person was shot and transported in a private vehicle to a hospital 5 miles away. The person’s condition is not known.

Police responded to a report of an active shooter and later determined the shooting was “between two separate groups … at the exterior area of the Walmart Automotive Center,” according to Cohen.

“It was two groups that knew each other,” the deputy chief said. “They had an altercation … There is no danger to the public.”

Several people were detained for questioning, Cohen said. The 203,000-square foot Walmart was evacuated, but no shots were fired inside, police said. The auto center is at the back of the right side of the store, behind the garden center, and has its own small parking lot.

Customer Gail Parks told CNN affiliate WSB, “This guy started running across the store screaming ‘Active shooter! ‘Active shooter!’ And people started scattering everywhere, dropping stuff and running out of the store.”

Walmart spokesperson Ashley Nolan said the company is working closely with police.

The shooting comes two weeks after six store employees were killed by a gunman at a Walmart in Virginia.

A manager on an overnight shift at a Walmart in Chesapeake allegedly opened fire with a handgun on November 22 in the break room in what was the third mass shooting in Virginia in November.

The Chesapeake store is closed for “the foreseeable future” and will be remodeled before it reopens, Walmart spokesperson Charles Crowson said.

Cobb County has roughly 767,000 people, according to the US Census Bureau.

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