Man killed, suspect at large in Smyrna Commons shooting

About the time concerned citizens of Smyrna’s education future were milling outside of following Tuesday night’s Cobb County School District (CCSD) sponsored elementary redistricting meeting, a man was shot and killed a few hundred yards away at the , which will be razed next year in order to make way for the very same Smyrna elementary school that was being discussed at CHS.

An unidentified man was shot dead between 8 and 8:30 p.m. according to spokesman, Louis Defense.

“We did have a homicide and we are currently investigating the case,’’ said Defense shortly before midnight, when it was believed the wounded suspect was still at large.

According to police, there was an argument between two men at the apartment complex located in the 2500 block of Ward Street. One man pulled a gun and chased the other from the outside parking lot into the brick apartment’s back bedroom, where a woman and her child were resting.

They say that’s when the man with the gun fired several shots at the victim, who was pronounced dead upon arrival at Kennestone Hospital.

An upstairs neighbor told Patch that the victim did not live at the apartment, but had been a frequent visitor. Neither the mother nor child was injured during the incident.

The name of the victim has not been released, nor a description of the suspect at the time of this article.

Late Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning there was a significant police presence in the vicinity of Smyrna Commons, CHS and surrounding areas.

It marked the city’s second homicide of 2011 after February’s deadly hit-and-run accident on Old Concord Road. There was only one Smyrna homicide in 2010 as a man was robbed and shot to death in his Spring Road apartment on Dec. 28.

Smyrna Commons was bought by the City of Smyrna in 2008, and in February was sold to the CCSD to be used as part of Smyrna’s new elementary school to open in 2013. No one could be reached for comment from the City of Smyrna, which continues to operate the complex until the school district takes over sometime in late 2011 or early 2012.

Stay tuned to Patch for continuing updates on this situation.