One person is dead and another injured after an altercation inside a rideshare car in Atlanta early Wednesday.
“At some point, there was an argument inside the vehicle with the driver,” Atlanta Police Lt. Daniel Genson told reporters, according to NBC News. “That argument ultimately ensued to gunfire.”
The shooting happened just before 5 a.m. Wednesday morning at a Chevron gas station on the northeast side of the city.
According to an updated news release from the Atlanta Police Department, 36-year-old Nigel Nembhard has been charged with felony murder and aggravated assault and is currently in the Fulton County Jail.
The original police report notes “the preliminary investigation found that the two males had been in a ride-share vehicle at the Chevron when a dispute arose with the driver. The dispute continued and resulted in the driver, also an adult male, shooting the other two males.”
“A third male passenger in the vehicle fled the scene on foot,” the report states. “The wounded male was taken to the hospital. The driver is cooperating with police and the Homicide Unit detectives are working to determine what led to the dispute.”
According to reports, the incident was captured on the gas station’s video surveillance system.
Local CBS reporter Shon Gables wrote on Twitter yesterday, “Atlanta: Police investigating at least 10 shootings in Metro Atlanta since Tuesday night, including a rideshare driver shooting his passenger. 4 victims have died.”
Violent crime is up in the city of Atlanta, including homicides, shootings and assaults.
Two 15-year-old teens were arrested last week after allegedly critically injuring a security guard at the Apple Store in Lenox Mall.
The city recently named a new police chief, Rodney Bryant, who said the department has been rolling out new initiatives to address violent crime. At APD headquarters last week, Bryant told reporters he believes access to guns is to blame for the increase.
“One of the things we continue to see is the number of handguns with our youth, as well as the people who just shouldn’t have guns in their hands at all,” he said. “We believe that we have to intercept that. We have to do a better job of finding where these guns are coming from and cut that avenue off.”
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