Brian Kemp, the governor of the US state of Georgia, declared a state of emergency on Monday (local time), CNN reports . Last weekend, at least 31 people were injured and 5 people died as a result of shootings in the city of Atlanta. Especially the death of an eight-year-old girl caused a lot of commotion.
“Peaceful protests were taken over by criminals with a dangerous, destructive agenda. Now innocent Georgia residents are being attacked, shot and left for dead,” said Kemp.
Due to a state of emergency, the governor has been authorized to deploy 1,000 members of the National Guard, including to protect state property.
Among the five killed on the Fourth of July weekend was eight-year-old Secoriea Turner. The girl was shot to death on Saturday night while she was in a car with her mother and another adult trying to drive through illegally placed barricades to get to a parking lot. At least two gunmen were involved in the incident.
“You shot and killed a small child. And there was not one shooter, there were at least two,” Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms addressed the perpetrators on Sunday. “You can’t pass this on to a police officer. You can’t say this is police reform,” said Bottoms.
$ 10,000 reward
Police have promised a $ 10,000 (nearly $ 9,000) reward for new information leading to the shooters.
It has been restless in Atlanta for more than a month, as in many other US cities. Since the death of black American George Floyd in Minneapolis in late May, many people have protested against police brutality and racism. With the protests they try, among other things, to enforce reform in the police.
At the end of May, a state of emergency was also declared in Atlanta , after the headquarters of TV channel CNN was besieged by protesters. Parts of the building, such as a large logo for the building, were defaced and demonstrators smashed windows.