Downtown Athens experiences third mass shooting in four years

By Joe Jonson

The shooting incident that injured three people early Sunday morning was the third mass shooting in downtown Athens since 2021

There is no single and widely accepted definition, but a mass shooting is generally said to be when one or more people shoot multiple individuals in rapid succession, usually in an outdoor public space.

Going by that metric the downtown area of Athens has experienced three such shootings over the past four years.

The first happened early the morning of September 5th, 2021 at the crowded intersection of East Clayton and North Jackson streets, where members of the Blood Trey Nine gang from Wilkes County opened fire on members of the rival Roadrunners gang, which is associated with the Gangster Disciples.

The incident coincided with throngs of people visiting bars downtown as they celebrated the University of Georgia’s football team defeating Clemson University.

Police said the victims were bystanders ranging in age from 19 to 29.

Two more people were shot on October 29th, 2023 outside of Tropical Bar on West Hancock Avenue, suffering gunshot wounds to their torsos.

The victims were identified as a 31-year-old Athens man, and an 18-year-old man from Elberton.

The police department has yet to release information about this weekend’s triple shooting, though Classic City News has learned that the victims are alll juveniles and that their injuries were not life threatening.

The incident happened when downtown’s bar and nightclub district was packed following the Georgia-Alabama game at Sanford Stadium.