By Joe Johnson
There reportedly were six shootings over a 10-hour period in Athens this week that left two people injured.
All but one of the shootings likely were gang related, according to Lt. Shaun Barnett, public information officer for the Athens-Clarke County Police Department.
“Preliminary information, including the locations and times and other factors lead us to believe these incidents possibly were likely gang-related” drive-by shootings, he said.
Barnett said officers responded to the first shooting at about 4 p.m. Wednesday to the area of Broadacres Court regarding discharging firearms.
“Officers arrived and found that several rounds had been fired in the area of 65 Broadacres Ct. where no injuries were reported,” he said.
Over five hours later, at about 9:40 p.m. according to Barnett, officers responded to a discharging firearms call in the area of Bethel Midtown Village and found that several rounds had been fired in the area of 155 Hickman Drive, where no injuries were reported.
Two hours later, at about 11:37 p.m., officers raced to the 600 block of Freeman Drive, where a residence had been struck by gunfire regarding discharging firearms, Barnett said, but no injuries were reported.
Less than three hours after that, at about 2:16 a.m. Thursday, according to the lieutenant, officers went to another firearms call in the 100 block of Burgundy Court, where they found that a residence had been shot at.
Again, no injuries were reported.
At about 3:40 a.m. Thursday another residence, this time in the 300 block of Fairview Street was found by officers to have been struck by gunfire, with no one reported injured, according to Barnett.
The one shooting that Barnett said was not related happened in a home at University Oaks apartments, 2360 W. Broad St., to where officers responded at about 9:13 p.m. Wednesday and found that two males had been shot.
He said that both shooting victims had non-life-threatening injuries and were transported to the hospital by National EMS.
There were no suspects or known motive.