Women exchange gunfire in Athens neighborhood

By Joe Johnson

Gunfire was exchanged over the weekend during a dispute between groups of women in the Lantern Walk subdivision of northwest Athens.

Police say they responded to the area at about 4 a.m. to investigate multiple 911 calls concerning firearms being discharged.

“Callers reported up five gunshots heard, followed by several vehicles leaving the scene and people screaming,” police said.

Neighbors pointed arriving officers to a house on West Vincent Drive, where spent shell casings littered the front steps.

Officers surrounded the house, calling for the occupants to exit and the women who came out were handcuffed and placed into patrol vehicles while the officers sorted out the situation.

The resident of the house told police that while she and her friends were downtown they encountered another group of women with whom she had some issues.

Nothing happened at the time, but after returning home on West Vincent the woman began receiving threats through Instagram direct messages.

The woman said she responded by providing her address with an invitation for the others to come fight.

When a pair of cars rolled into the neighborhood gunfire erupted, with the woman returning fire, she told police, and she was still squeezing off rounds when the fiends grabbed and pulled her into the house.

No injuries were reported.

The woman’s pistol and phones were seized as evidence, according to police.