ATLANTA — Two Atlanta transit police officers were shot after they tried to confront a man urinating in a train station, investigators say.
Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority Police Chief M. Scott Kreher tells local news outlets that officials are looking for the man, who got away after shooting at the officers as they tried to arrest him late Thursday.
The shooting happened just before midnight at MARTA’s Five Points station, the downtown transfer point for the system’s trains.
Kreher told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the man became irate and refused to cooperate when officers approached him. Officers decided to arrest the man, but Kreher said he pulled out a handgun and shot over his shoulder at the officer. He grazed a female officer in the knee and struck a male officer in the arm.
The female officer has been released from the hospital but is also reporting hearing loss because she was so close when the gun was fired. Kreher said she is expected to fully recover. The male officer was undergoing surgery Friday for his arm injury.
Cameras show the man then got on a train and rode two stops south, throwing his gun on the roof of the West End station. Police haven’t publicly identified the man but say they know who he is and the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force is looking for him. The gun has been recovered.
The Five Points station reopened when trains started running Friday morning.