Woman Shot Near Gilliam Park During Robbery

KIRKWOOD — A woman walking her dog was shot during a robbery attempt Tuesday afternoon near Gilliam Park.

It was the second-gun related incident at a city park in Kirkwood this week.

The victim told police she was walking her dog around 6:30 p.m. near Wade Street NE when two men approached her near the bike path at Gilliam.

They asked her if she knew what time it was and if she had a phone. She told them no and left the park.

A little while later, she said one of the men approached her, took her mobile phone and shot her in the left thigh as she tried to flee.

Investigators canvassed the area with their K9 and air units. The K9 dog tracked a scent to Marona and Hardee streets before losing the trail of the gunmen.

Meanwhile, another man approached investigators and told them the same two men accosted him.

The men, both black were last seen wearing:

• Suspect 1: a royal blue shirt and gray short with black shoes
• Suspect 2: a black t-shirt and black shorts

As the victims ran toward them, one of the teens fired two rounds in their direction and drove off in the victim’s car.

No one was hurt in that incident.

No arrests have been made in any of the cases and the park incidents underscore Kirkwood’s efforts to hammer out a strategy to address crime in city parks.

Earl Williamson, chairman of Neighborhood Planning Unit-O, which includes Kirkwood, East Lake, the Villages of East Lake and Edgewood, told East Atlanta Patch community leaders tried to get talks started with the city’s parks and police departments last year.

But at a meeting he arranged to get talks going, only the police bothered to show up.

The efforts to get a parks strategy followed a number of serious crimes in Kirkwood-area parks and greenspaces alone that Williamson tallied in 2012:

• Aggravated Assault - 3
• Pedestrian Robbery - 5
• Burglary - 2
• Auto Theft - 5
• Other Larceny - 15
• Larceny From Auto - 5
• TOTAL = 35