A shooting at a Gwinnett County park left one man shot in the back and several cars damaged while families were nearby.
Channel 2′s Gwinnett County Bureau Chief Matt Johnson was in Lawrenceville Thursday, where police said the suspect didn’t care where he was shooting.
The incident happened Tuesday at Sweetwater Park just before 8 p.m. while parents were still at the park with their kids.
A video a witness shot showed police surrounding a truck next to a victim who was shot in the back. The victim told police he didn’t know the man who shot him.
Police arrested 19-year-old Todd Celestine on Tuesday. Investigators said he was firing “indiscriminately in a crowded park during daylight hours.”
Johnson talked to Tarsheika West, who didn’t expect to hear gunshots on her routine walk with her dog at the park last week.
“I saw the guy get put in the ambulance,” West said. “It’s like he had a gunshot wound right here.”
West said she worries where else stray bullets could have gone.
“Especially with kids being at the park, getting hit by stray bullets,” West said. “People now just don’t have any regard for life.”
A 20-year-old man who was shot in the shoulder, back and leg is now recovering.
Some who were at the park for the shooting said it makes them think twice about their safety, even at a public park.
“Hearing stuff like that, I definitely put a thought in my head like, ‘Maybe not today,’” West said.
Police did not give a motive for the shooting.