'I'm open to suggestions': Democrat star Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms admits she doesn't know how to stop alarming crime wave as seven-year-old girl is shot dead and city faces deadliest year in decades
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, a rising star in the Democratic Party who was recently considered for a position in President-elect Joe Biden's cabinet, is coming under fire for her administration's handling of a surge in violent crime in her city.
Saying she was 'open to suggestions' on stopping the crime wave, the mayor was on the defensive over the holiday weekend after three people were fatally shot in the city, bringing Atlanta's homicide count to its highest in more than two decades.
A 7-year-old girl who was shot in the head by a stray bullet after Christmas shopping with her family in Atlanta has died, marking another fatality in a city suffering from a spike in gun violence.
Kennedy Maxie succumbed to her injuries Saturday night, the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office told news outlets Sunday.
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms (seen on October 27) has been criticized for her administration's failure to address the surge in violent crime citywide this year
A 7-year-old girl who was shot in the head by a stray bullet after Christmas shopping with her family in Atlanta has died, marking another fatality in a city suffering from a spike in gun violence. Kennedy Maxie (pictured) succumbed to her injuries Saturday night, the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office told news outlets Sunday
The shooting happened at Atlanta's Phipps Plaza, where there was an alleged argument in the parking lot. Kennedy and her family were not involved in the incident leading up to the shooting
Kennedy's death marked the 155th homicide victim in Atlanta this year - the highest total since at least 1998, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
In all of last year, Atlanta Police Department investigated a total of 99 homicides.
The young girl had been in critical condition since she was struck while riding in a car on December 21 near the popular Phipps Plaza mall in the city's Buckhead neighborhood.
Several men in a nearby parking lot had gotten into a fight that led to gunfire.
Police have been examining surveillance footage from the scene in an attempt to identify a suspect, but no arrests have been made.
In a statement to news outlets, Bottoms said police have 'significant leads' in the investigation, and urged the public to provide information 'that will lead to the arrests of the careless and heartless people responsible for Kennedy’s death.'
'Our hearts are broken by the senseless murder of Kennedy,' Bottoms said.
On the day after Christmas, 16-year-old Kalecia Williams was fatally shot in a downtown Atlanta hotel
A 16-year-old boy is in custody after police said he fatally shot Kalecia while having an argument with her in a hotel room
Williams, 16, was shot dead by a 16-year-old boy in a hotel room at Hyatt Regency hotel in Atlanta (pictured) following an argument the day after Christmas
'While the Atlanta Police Department has significant leads in the apprehension of those responsible, it does not erase the pain felt when a beautiful, vibrant, and loving child is tragically taken from her family.'
Hours before Kennedy succumbed to her wounds, a 16-year-old girl, Kalecia Williams, was shot dead by a boy with whom she was staying at a downtown Atlanta hotel.
Williams was shot at the Hyatt Regency Atlanta on Peachtree Street around 12:27am on the day after Christmas.
Officers from the Atlanta Police Department arrived at the scene in the downtown hotel district to find the teen suffering from an apparent gunshot wound to the groin area.
She was not conscious or breathing and was rushed to a nearby hospital where she was later pronounced dead.
A male suspect, also 16, was arrested in connection with the shooting and charged with felony murder, aggravated assault, reckless conduct and possession of a pistol for person under the age of 18.
The 16-year-old is being held at the Metro Youth Detention Center and has not been identified by police due to his young age.
Bottoms and the Atlanta Police Department's interim chief, Rodney Bryant (pictured), have come under intense criticism for the spike in violent crime this year
The above chart shows the most recent Atlanta Police Department crime statistics. As of December 19, there was a 58 per cent increase in the number of homicides and a 42 per cent increase in the number of shooting incidents compared to the same period last year
Investigators said the shooting of the teenage girl happened following an argument with a young male while they were both in one of the rooms.
Atlanta City Council President Felicia Moore told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution the city council has 'done the best they can on the policy side' to stem the violence and pointed at police, saying they need to have more presence on the streets.
Another member of the city council, Howard Shook, recently took aim at Bottoms' administration for the rise in crime.
'I don’t want to hear the word "uptick." Stop minimizing our concerns by telling us that "crime is up everywhere",' he said in a statement last week.
He did not mention the mayor or the city’s Interim Police Chief Rodney Bryant, but the pair have used similar language in the past.
Jada Willingham died on December 4 at the Children's Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston Hospital after she was shot in the face at a Lithonia, Georgia, home
'Spare us from the lie that the steady outflow of our officers isn’t as bad as it is,' Shook's statement said.
'And please, not another throw-away press conference utterly devoid of game-changing action steps.'
In response to those comments, Bottom said highlighting the rise in violence across the United States is 'not an abdication of responsibility, but an acknowledgement of the widespread severity of this issue.'
'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,' she said.
This year has been a deadly one for children and teens in the metropolitan Atlanta area.
More than 20 people younger than 19 years of age were gunned down in the region this year.
On December 12, Davone Burnett, 16, was shot to death in the Atlanta suburb of Lawrenceville.
The suspect, Malachi Mathew Perkins, 18, was arrested days later. No word on what the possible motive was for the shooting.
On December 12, Davone Burnett, 16, was shot to death in the Atlanta suburb of Lawrenceville
On December 4, a five-year-old girl was fatally shot dead by her lifelong friend when the two were playing with a handgun that had been left unattended in the Georgia home where the pair were being babysat.
Jada Willingham died at the Children's Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston Hospital after she was shot in the face by the other five-year-old at the Lithonia, Georgia, home.
According to DeKalb County police investigators, Jada was one of four children at the Madras Court home when the shooting occurred.
Officers arrived at the scene at around 3.20pm, finding Jada lying on the floor in a bedroom, an incident report states.
The kids were being watched by the grandmother of one of the children at the time, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.
When police arrived, the 68-year-old woman was kneeling besides Jada, trying to stop the blood from pouring out her face.
She told police that the two young girls had been playing together in the bedroom when she heard a gunshot from the kitchen. The incident report states that at some point, the pair found the 9mm Smith & Wesson.
Third grader Secoriea Turner, 8, was shot on July 4 around 9.30pm when gunmen opened fire on her mother's SUV while she was trying to drive through an illegal roadblock set up by protesters across the street from that same Wendy's where police fatally shot Rayshard Brooks
This past summer, the city was shocked by the fatal shooting of eight-year-old Secoriea Turner.
Secoriea was shot on July 4 around 9.30pm when gunmen opened fire on her mother's SUV as it tried to drive around an illegal barricade set up by protesters across the street from that same Wendy's where police fatally shot Rayshard Brooks.
Brooks, a 27-year-old black man, was shot and killed by two white Atlanta police officers in a Wendy’s parking lot on June 12.
Video of the incident shows Brooks wrestling with the two police officers after they tried to place handcuffs on him when he failed a sobriety test.
Brooks then grabbed one of the officer's stun guns and fled on foot. He was then shot three times.
Brooks’ death inflamed raw emotions in Atlanta and across the U.S. following the May 25 police custody killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
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