12-Year-Old Killed In Shooting Near Atlantic Station; 5 Teens Injured: Atlanta Police

ATLANTA, GA — A weekend shooting near Atlantic Station left a 12-year-old dead and five teens injured, according to police.

The incident occurred about 8 p.m. Saturday, police said. Multiple news outlets identified the child who died as Zyion Charles.

Juveniles had been escorted from Atlantic Station by off-duty Atlanta police and security guards for disorderly behavior and violating curfew, according to authorities. Not long after the minors were removed, an escalating dispute resulted in gunfire in the area of 17th Street and Interstate 75, police said.

Charles died in the wake of the shooting, while one teen was in critical condition and four more were recovering from gunshot wounds, Mayor Andre Dickens said at a press conference Sunday afternoon, streamed by the Atlanta Police Department on Facebook.

“It’s important to know where your child is at all times,” Dickens said, noting he had spoken to several of the victims’ parents, and most didn’t know their child had been at Atlantic Station at the time of the shooting or about the mall's curfew. “I’m asking parents right now that you use your phones. Your Android and your iPhone — they all have trackers.”

Police were on the scene “almost instantaneously,” Chief Darin Schierbaum said, remarking that some of the teens involved in the shooting were known to Atlanta police and that warrants were expected to be issued. There were 26 off-duty Atlanta officers and 10 security guards working Saturday night at Atlantic Station, according to Dickens. Atlantic Station has doubled its on-site law enforcement for the foreseeable future, the mall said in a statement provided to 11 ALIVE.

Three handguns were recovered from the scene, according to Schierbaum.

“What Atlanta Police Department can’t do or Atlantic Station can’t do is to be parents,” Schierbaum said at the press conference. “Please exercise your influence as an adult in someone’s life. … Know if your child has a gun.”

The children and teens involved in Saturday’s shooting included students in Atlanta Public Schools, KIPP Metro Atlanta Schools, the Cobb County School District and schools in Fairburn, according to Dickens.

Anyone with camera footage of the shooting or other information is asked to call Atlanta Crime Stoppers at 404-577-8477.