The child shot at the mall in Atl died last night. R.I.P Kennedy (Update: Killer identified)
- Thread starter Born2BKing
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Tribal Outkast
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I know her name is in the article. I’m saying I Should be able to get on social media and see her name posted by others. I haven’t seen anybody talk about this young lady at all smh and I’m from Georgia. I mean I live in North Carolina now but I follow a bunch of people from Georgia and definitely from the Atlanta area.
what im saying is the person will be a “democrat” and the churches will get in line.
ATL mayor elections are technically “non partisan” because everyone is a “democrat”. The White lady who almost won wouldn’t even publicly identify as being a republican even though her track record says otherwise.
UberEatsDriver
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Wouldn’t be surprised if it was native people who did it or people from near burbs.
Y’all took that report of out of towners from the last article and now will use this excuse forever
GnauzBookOfRhymes
Superstar
Damn....what happened?
I'm in Chicago and it's basically the same situation here. Criminals running wild. Homicides close to 800 again. But like I said a lot of it has to do with mayor police.relations. 2016 was the last really bad year for Chicago (800 homicides) and that was the year after the laquan mcdonald shooting and police were basically sitting on their hands refusing to do their jobs. Same thing happened this year with the pandemic and the police brutality protests etc.
CodeKansas
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R.I.P.
Eastside Get The Money
Veteran
What is with y’all and these mall shootings in the A??? 
Back in Detroit we have a gas station problem but most of the time it’ll be someone caught lacking at midnight or something. Y’all shooting in public places in daytime hours
Back in Detroit we have a gas station problem but most of the time it’ll be someone caught lacking at midnight or something. Y’all shooting in public places in daytime hours
HARLEM AL
Your broad loves me.....
Wtf man
One thing about dumb nikkas and guns. They can’t shoot for shyt. Poor child lost her fukking life for some stupid shyt.
Poor baby
One thing about dumb nikkas and guns. They can’t shoot for shyt. Poor child lost her fukking life for some stupid shyt.
Poor baby
Same thing happens up here, fools been shooting up at the upscale mall for a couple of years now. They now have dogs in the mall to sniff for guns when you walk in, before that they would check IDs at the entrance.I shed a tear this morning. It just ain't right.
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A 7-year-old girl has died days after she was struck by a stray bullet while Christmas shopping with her family in Buckhead, according to reports.
Kennedy Maxie died of her injuries Saturday night, Channel 2 Action News reported. The girl had been in critical condition at Children’s Healthcare at Atlanta at Scottish Rite since the shooting on Monday evening, officials said.
Kennedy, who lived in Cobb County and attended Sedalia Park Elementary, was shot in the back of the head while riding with her mother and aunt near Phipps Plaza. Investigators do not believe the family’s Lexus was the intended target of the shooting, which stemmed from an argument between several men in the parking lot of Saks Fifth Avenue, interim police Chief Rodney Bryant said.
ExplorePolice ID 7-year-old girl shot near Phipps Plaza
ExploreDonations pouring in for 7-year-old shot while Christmas shopping in Buckhead
The child’s aunt told detectives she heard the gunfire while driving along Peachtree Road near the high-end shopping mall. Moments later, she realized Kennedy had been struck and drove straight to the hospital, where the little girl was rushed into surgery.
Police are still examining surveillance footage from the parking lot in an attempt to identify the shooter, but no arrests have been made.
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Councilman Howard Shook’s statement following the shooting of Kennedy Maxie at Phipps Plaza in Buckhead marked what may be the most direct and biting public criticism Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms has received from a member of the City Council since she took office.
Maxie was struck in the head by a stray bullet while Christmas shopping with her family; she remained at the hospital in critical condition as of Thursday afternoon, authorities said.
The rebuke did not mention Bottoms by name, but took aim at “the administration.”
“I don’t want to hear the word ‘uptick.’ Stop minimizing our concerns by telling us that ‘crime is up everywhere,’” Shook’s statement said. Both Bottoms and Atlanta police Interim Chief Rodney Bryant have used similar language when discussing the rise in crime during press conferences and interviews in recent months.
“Spare us from the lie that the steady outflow of our officers isn’t as bad as it is,” Shook’s statement continued. “And please, not another throw-away press conference utterly devoid of game-changing action steps.”
The mayor’s office hit back, saying that a mention of the surge in violence across the nation is “not an abdication of responsibility, but an acknowledgement of the widespread severity of this issue.”
7-year-old Kennedy Maxie is fighting for her life after being shot outside Phipps Plaza.
“If there are solutions that we have not explored and enacted, I welcome the suggestions, as I am always open to making the city that I am raising my children in a safer place for us all,” Bottoms wrote in a statement to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, without mentioning Shook by name.
In the past, council members including Shook have spoken up about the rise in violent crime this year but have not directly criticized Bottoms’ leadership. In some ways, Shook’s statement brought to light the frustration some other members of the council have felt about public safety and the mayor’s duties.
“We would like to see more focus from the administration, and really from the mayor, on taking a leadership role,” Councilman J.P. Matzigkeit, who also represents Buckhead, said Wednesday. “She hasn’t focused as much attention on crime as she has on other issues.”
ExploreIn Buckhead, familiar debates arise over crime and influence
City Council President Felicia Moore said she spoke with Shook on Tuesday; he told her he sent out a statement, but she didn’t see it until after its’ release.
“He’s had some issues with the crime previously, and it’s just kind of built up, I believe, to a young, innocent child getting shot in the back of the head just driving down the street,” Moore said, adding that she wouldn’t characterize the issue as tension between council members and the mayor’s office.
“I think everyone wants something to happen, they want to see action ... And I believe that his statement was just his way of expressing his frustration,” she said.
Councilman Andre dikkens, who has a citywide post, said some tension between the council and mayor is normal and comes with the territory. dikkens has served under both Bottoms and Mayor Kasim Reed, “and I’ve always had some tension between both of them at some time. I don’t always vote for a mayor’s policy or plan, or against it.”
dikkens declined to comment specifically on the mayor’s handling of public safety issues. Regarding Shook’s statement, dikkens said an “outspoken, considerable amount of that community is communicating that they don’t feel safe and they want some help. This is his version of responding, and it’s definitely gotten attention. Let’s see what happens next.”
Several other city council members declined to comment on Shook’s statement and the implications it could have.
In the past, under Bottoms’ tenure, any public disagreements between the mayor and council have mostly centered around specific policy issues, rather than leadership concerns. Shook and Bottoms served together on the City Council for eight years and largely maintained a professional, cordial relationship.
Charles Bullock, a political science professor at the University of Georgia who keeps tabs on local politics in Atlanta, pointed out that Shook sent the statement as a press release rather than a private message to members of the administration.
“He wants this to be publicized that he is expressing these kinds of concerns, and in so doing (is) mobilizing public support for his positions,” Bullock said.
Some also questioned the political implications of Shook’s remarks.
“Welcome to the season of re-election,” Rashad Taylor, one of the mayor’s senior advisors, said in a tweet Tuesday night, perhaps implying that Shook’s statement could be intended to help bolster a possible reelection bid next year.
Taylor also pointed out that Bottoms has raised the salaries for Atlanta police officers and that crime is down overall, while APD is targeting “areas of concern.”
“Come with solutions and not rhetoric,” Taylor wrote. He did not mention Shook by name.
Police department data shows serious crimes are down by 15% this year compared to 2019, though murders and aggravated assaults both increased. The 151 homicides recorded in the city this year is the most Atlanta has seen since 2002.
Adding to political fallout Tuesday night was a tweet from former mayor Reed that directed attention to Shook’s statement. With a single emoji of a hand pointing downward at the councilman’s press release, some wondered if Reed was criticizing his successor, whom he supported during Bottoms’ 2017 runoff election against challenger Mary Norwood.
ExploreThe Jolt: A Kasim Reed emoji shakes up Atlanta City Hall
Reed said in a later tweet that he was not “calling out” anyone: “I am saying the current level of violence in our city can’t stand. We all have to work to push back against it. It is a solvable problem. We have done it before.”
The issue of crime and public safety is expected to play an outsized role in 2021, when the mayor and all 15 members of City Council are up for reelection. Bottoms said early this year that she plans to seek a second term in office, though she has not formally launched a reelection campaign.
Taylor said this month that Bottoms turned down an offer to serve in President-elect Joe Biden’s cabinet, after being considered a top candidate to be his vice presidential running mate.
Public safety is “always job one for every elected person, mayor and city council,” said Michael Julian Bond, a citywide councilman. “I just know ... people want more effective policing. They want a stronger police presence.”
The recent rise in crime in Buckhead, especially at popular malls like Phipps and Lenox Square, “is highlighted because it is in Buckhead,” Bond said. “But it’s emblematic of what’s going on all across the city.”
— Staff reporter Shaddi Abusaid contributed to this report.
Even the AJC editorial board got smoke
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Opinion: Get the violence in Atlanta under control
“To the administration, I don’t want to hear the word ‘uptick.’ Stop minimizing our concerns by telling us that ‘crime is up everywhere.’ Spare us from the lie that the steady outflow of our officers isn’t as bad as it is. And please, not another throw-away press conference utterly devoid of game-changing action steps. It will take a lot to turn this around. But here, in descending order, are the three things we need to begin: 1). Leadership; 2). Some Leadership; 3). Any leadership.”
Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms’ response? She issued this statement:
“This is a challenging time in Atlanta and across our country. While we continue to keep public safety as a top priority, senseless gun violence continues to impact innocent lives, like that of the precious 7-year-old girl who was struck by a stray bullet. ... We owe it to our children, as well as to all of our communities, to do everything in our power to eliminate gun violence.”
Citizens deserve more from their mayor.
The facts at hand? The city’s crime statistics can be used to make several arguments, but some things are clear:
- -There have been 155 homicides in the city this year, as of Sunday. That’s compared to 99 last year.
- -COVID-19 restrictions likely resulted in lower property crimes early in the year, driving the overall crime rate down. Crime has been going up, and arrests are going down.
For example, remember July Fourth weekend? Gunfire left five people dead. One of the victims was an 8-year-old girl. That weekend’s final tally was 31 confirmed shooting victims in 11 incidents.
Over the Thanksgiving weekend? Five people dead after a series of stabbings and shootings that occurred in less than 48 hours.
As the Christmas weekend approached, one man was killed and four others were injured in four separate shootings Tuesday evening across Atlanta.
By day two of this holiday weekend, three people were killed, including a 16-year-old girl shot at a downtown hotel.
ExploreChristmas weekend slayings push Atlanta’s homicide count to 22-year high
The terrifying incidents involving children have stood out.
Secoriea Turner died on that July Fourth weekend. She was shot near the burned-out Wendy’s restaurant where Rayshard Brooks had been killed by a police officer. The car she was in encountered a roadblock established by an armed group in control of the area near the restaurant. Investigators have said as many as four people fired shots. But only one suspect has been charged in the case.
A 7-year-old Mableton girl was shot in the head Monday evening while riding with her mother and aunt after an evening of Christmas shopping near Phipps Plaza in Buckhead on Peachtree Road. Kennedy Maxie, who had been at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Scottish Rite in critical condition since the shooting, died on Saturday night. Investigators believe the shooting started as a fight between several men in the parking lot outside Saks Fifth Avenue.
As Shook put it: “It is obvious that the civilian authorities do not control the streets and cannot provide even a token feeling of safety beyond our front doors.”
Continuing to point to the escalation of violence in other cities, while accurate, does little to assuage the concerns of Atlantans. It isn’t enough for Mayor Bottoms to issue a statement. The first responsibility of a city’s leader is the safety and well-being of its citizens.
Police morale and staffing have been an issue for months. What is she doing to improve the morale of the department?
The city has an interim police chief. At a time when she speaks of new ways to police, it seems like the department ought to have a permanent leader committed to new strategy.
The mayor might prefer other matters, such as her affordable housing initiative. But the street racing and too many gunshots are being heard by more and more impatient and upset citizens. This is her crisis to confront.
The Editorial Board.
get these nets
Veteran
REST IN PEACE
I mean many black mayors wanted the OG crime bill to curb the fukkery happening in their cities.
I do agree that it starts with us a community doing something about this bum ass shyt. Not cops, but not cacs, but our own saying enough is enough and start shaming these clowns and the behavior. The enablement of fukkery needs to end.
Born2BKing
Veteran
Going Christmas shopping, imagine how excited she was. This breaks my heart
