A man shot and injured 3 people at a downtown Atlanta food court before being shot and killed by a police officer, officials say.

Atlanta
CNN
—

A 34-year-old man with an extensive criminal record fatally shot three people Tuesday at a popular downtown Atlanta food court, before being shot by a police officer and taken into custody, officials said .

The victims, all three alive and being treated in area hospitals, include a 47-year-old man, a 69-year-old woman and a 70-year-old woman. They are all expected to survive, authorities said.

“It’s a very busy area. “That’s where people work, and that’s where people eat dinner while they’re at work, so there was a crowd at lunchtime and it was pretty active,” the mayor said Andrew Dickens.

Police began receiving calls shortly after 2:15 p.m. Tuesday reporting shots fired in the food court of the Peachtree Center, an office and retail hub, Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum said , during the press conference.

The suspect allegedly entered the food court armed with a handgun and had a “brief altercation” with a person before shooting that person, the police chief said, later specifying that the shooter had “physically attacked” the person before shooting them.

The suspect then shot two other people who were in the food court, Schierbaum said.

The suspect was then confronted by an off-duty Atlanta police officer who was working overtime. The officer confronted the suspect and shot him, wounding him, the police chief said. A second officer moved the gun away from the suspect, helping to disarm him, the chief said.

The Atlanta police officer “acted decisively, put himself in harm’s way and ended this threat to the community,” Schierbaum said.

The suspect is a convicted felon who served time for armed robbery and has “11 prior arrest cycles,” the police chief said. “This is an individual who should never have possessed a gun and an individual who should never have put this community in danger.”

Authorities are working to determine how the suspect might have had a connection to the person he attacked first. Police have not shared any other details that could identify the suspect.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation will lead the investigation into the case, officials said.

Peachtree Center, in the heart of downtown, has more than “1.5 million square feet” of office space in four buildings, as well as 50 restaurants and retail stores and three hotels, according to its website.

The building was placed on lockdown after the shooting but had reopened late Tuesday afternoon, the mayor said. He had previously warned residents to “avoid the area”.

A little more than two hours after the shooting, another man in Atlanta allegedly held the driver of a commuter bus at gunpoint, leading police on a rush-hour chase as more than a dozen passengers remained in the vehicle. The suspect in that case was taken into custody and a person found shot on the bus died, police said.

Authorities said they do not believe the two incidents are related.

“Today has been a very active day, but let me be clear, we are talking about gun violence that is the result of too many people having guns in their hands,” Dickens said during an evening press conference following the bus hijacking. . “You’re talking about people who shouldn’t have taken to the streets with guns.”

“I think mental health is going to play a role in some of this, but you’re talking about too many guns in the hands of people who shouldn’t have them. Too many guns on our streets, too many guns in our homes, too many guns in our schools and buses,” the mayor said. “So this is clearly an indication that something more needs to be done.” »

This is a developing story and will be updated.