Two hours later, a mentally disturbed man allegedly hijacked a bus, took passengers hostage and killed a man before launching a frenzied highway chase straight out of the 1990s film “Speed.”
Police Chief Darin Seelbaum was quick to point out that the suspects had lengthy criminal histories — the alleged mall shooter had been arrested 11 times; the alleged bus hijacker had been arrested 19 times — and complaining about the revolving door of the justice system is pretty much part of APD’s job description.
Credit: John Spink/AJC
Credit: John Spink/AJC
After the first shooting, suspect Joseph Eric Greer, 39, wearing a moth-eaten T-shirt, told reporters he witnessed the attack and began a frenzied rambling tirade about his banking, his size (6’5″, 225 lbs), his felony convictions, his prisoner number, his parole officer, his inability to own a gun because of his criminal record, and his unmedicated bipolar disorder.
“I’m having manic episodes right now,” he said.
Speaking to reporters, he said of the food court shooter: “I’m bigger than this guy. He’s got a good-for-nothing little gun. I’m going to take it away.”
About a half-hour later, that’s exactly what he did, police said. Greer boarded a bus a few blocks away in Gwinnett County and allegedly got into a fight with a passenger who pulled out a gun. During the struggle, Greer grabbed the gun, shot the passenger and “ordered the bus driver to flee the scene while threatening the passenger with the gun,” Gwinnett County police said.
Passenger Ernest Byrd, 58, was a father and grandfather of seven and, in a tragic coincidence, worked with people with mental illness, according to his family.
The wild and tragic afternoon highlighted a range of issues the city must address: violent crime, mental illness, downtown perceptions, recidivism, gun ownership, petty disputes that escalate into violence, and even traffic issues.
Credit: Miguel Martinez
Credit: Miguel Martinez
“I think it has to do with mental health,” Dickens told reporters last week.
“You’re talking about individuals who know they have a mental illness, so that also comes up in the discussion,” he added. “How do we, as a society, deal with individuals who have a mental illness?”
Mr. Mayor, it’s a vexing question that has plagued humanity forever, and downtown Atlanta is home to far too many troubled and disturbed people.
The Peachtree Center shooting happened after suspect Jeremy Malone, 34, got into an argument with a stranger, police said, before shooting and killing the man and wounding two elderly women before being shot and killed by an off-duty Atlanta police officer.
The diminutive Malone, nicknamed “Cutthroat,” would be considered a mutt when it comes to criminality: At 17, he was convicted of robbery and jailed for seven years.
Since then, he’s been in and out of prison for charges including theft, drug possession, reckless conduct, aggravated assault, threatening a woman with a knife and being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Malone pleaded guilty to the latter charge last year and was ordered by a DeKalb County judge to serve time after spending about a year in jail on and off for that crime, WSB-TV reported.
Malone was charged with threatening a woman with a knife in Fulton in December and was released on bail last week, according to WSB.
State prison records show Greer had a troubled past two decades, having been convicted of child sexual abuse in 2005, aggravated assault three years later and again in 2011. He was released in late 2014.
A relative told reporters that Greer was college educated and described as a kind, stable person who took his medication.
But his arrest record shows he is a troubled, even dangerous, individual.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
In 2017, he was arrested in DeKalb on a public indecency charge and then again on a domestic violence charge.
In 2018, he was arrested for violating a restraining order, ordered to take anger management classes and stay away from the victim, and spent five months in Fulton Correctional Facility.
In 2019, he was arrested in Atlanta on aggravated assault charges. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 18 months in prison (actually 15 months), placed on probation for three and a half years, ordered to participate in a substance abuse program, and to stay away from the two victims.
In 2023, Greer was arrested for possession of a firearm in DeKalb and served another three months in jail.
Now he’s back, possibly for good.
Dickens said the tragedy and chaos of the past week was another wake-up call for society to tackle mental illness and the criminals who are oblivious to it.
But rebuilding a water system that has been aging for years would cost more than $1 billion, and oddly enough, should be easier than that.
From there, they can plan the network, draw up engineer plans, plead for grants from the federal government, ask residents for more funding, and get to work.
That will no doubt be difficult, but the other problem is much deeper.
