Active Shooter Situation

Last Wednesday, there was an active shooter on the loose near my office. It was such a surreal experience.

It started out with what seemed like a simple lunch break. Brooks and I were heating up our food on the 21st floor and ate our lunch at a high table next to one of the floor to ceiling windows. I had noticed an ambulance was parked in front of the hospital diagonal to our building, but thought that they were dropping off a patient or something. It wasn't until two more ambulances showed up with their sirens on that we realized something was going on over there. 

Then, one of our teammates stopped by to chat. The next thing we knew, a bunch of State Trooper cars started parking on the road in front of our side of the building, and another cop was taping off the entire road leading to the hospital. 

Directly diagonal to our office is the entrance to Whole Foods. That soon became the epicenter for all of the cops that arrived. More cop cars arrived. More cops running down the street with their handguns and rifles out. A motorcade arrived. Found out an hour or two later that a senator was in the area having lunch, which is why the motorcade was mobilized. 

Meanwhile, we're all refreshing news sites and Twitter trying to figure out what's going on as more and more of us look out the windows. Then, one guy stops by our area and tells us that a mom and her son went to the hospital for a mental health evaluation, he became angry, and pulled out a gun and shot four people!

Not long after that, our building lets out an alarm and statement saying that there's an active shooter situation nearby and that we were currently under lockdown. No one could leave or enter the building. And we're just confused at what is happening. Could we leave this floor? Was the shooter in our building? What's going on outside??? 

So many questions, while armored cars are driving by and more cops and SWAT teams are running around with guns outside.

Meanwhile, we're checking in with our team online to see if everyone's accounted for. Turns out our managers and director went out for a working lunch and were stuck at Grecian Gyro for the next 3-4 hours! Luckily, everyone else on our team was accounted for.

But every 30 minutes, we would get texts from our company updating us on the situation, so that was nice. Apparently, this was a first for our company. Also found out from my teammates that in the past 2 years they've worked here, this was the FOURTH active shooter situation that's happened nearby. This is fucking crazy!

At this point, no one's working. Everyone's pulled up news sites to see what's happening. They finally released the suspect's name and BOLO, and we know what happened to the victims. Meanwhile, the active shooter is still on the loose going towards The High museum. 

Next thing we hear is that he hijacked a car and was heading towards Smyrna, so our lockdown was finally lifted around 3pm. People started leaving the office asap and some had to wait it out because the shooter was heading towards their home! 

I also booked it. I had to cross the street to get to my parking deck, and a lot of the surround roads were still blocked off with lots of cops around. There were also news reporters in surround street corners.

I told my family the latest news and found out that Shelle was in her office in Smyrna that day, so she also went home shortly afterwards. This was good news because we later found out that they blocked off the roads near the Braves Stadium not long after that to catch the shooter, so she could have been stuck for hours if she hadn't left so soon.

They later caught the guy in Smyrna around 8pm, which was good news! The bad news is that my company still expected us to come into the office the next day because we had a town hall. Ridiculous! 

But yeah, it was pretty surreal and scary when everything happened. It really hit me that I only know how to use dark humor to distract myself and my friends when intense situations occur. The whole day seemed like a fever dream. I can't believe it happened, and I feel so bad for all of the victims and their families.