EXCLUSIVE: Witness tells how his car was struck by a bullet during a Sunday night shooting on Whittlesey Boulevard
WRBL agreed to conceal the witness’s identity.
COLUMBUS, Ga. (WRBL) — Police are still investigating a rolling shootout along Whittlesey Boulevard in North Columbus and details remain limited.
WRBL spoke with a man who witnessed the shooting and was close enough to nearly take a bullet to his passenger-side rearview mirror.
At the time of the shooting, the witness along with his family were on their way to enjoy what they thought would be a normal drive for a Sunday family dinner.
“I was sitting right here, my daughter to the left of me,” the man said. “Eventually, the black 300 pulls up to the right, which I pay no attention to at the time. When the light turns green, it was clear nothing was coming was it was not this busy. And I’m always quick off the light – off the line — and I go on and I don’t think I had gotten past the crosswalk before we started hearing the popping.”
About that time traffic started to move again.
“I don’t know what’s going on … ” the man said. “My wife says, ‘Why is that car drifting into us?’ I started drifting to the left. I end up in the left lane. The 300 ends up in the center lane. The other car is still in the right lane shooting diagonally at us. Right here in the left turn lane to Lowe’s, I duck in and stop, and they eventually go by me.”
But the shooting did not stop.
“The other car is pulling in behind him and there is still rapid gunfire all the way around this curve until they get out of my sight,” the man said. “But I can still hear them shooting as they go down the hill.”
The witness and his family were close enough to the shooting to see the shooter stretch his arm out and fire bullets at another car, which the man says placed his family in tremendous danger stating: “The car shooting at him was still in the right lane. So the the guy sitting up in the window is now shooting across his hood at the driver of the 300, the driver, the 300 being tucked up against my rear passenger door, put my wife and everyone in my car directly in the line of fire, which is why we have a bullet in the mirror.”
The man also shared his description of what the shooter inside the black Chrysler looked like.
“So, the guy sitting in the window, was fairly well covered,” the witness said. “I believe he had long sleeves. He had a plastic half face mask, sort of like they wear in motocross. I want to say they had a skull painted on it but I caught just the side of it. He was holding on to the A-pillar with his left hand while his right arm was completely stretched out. He had a fully automatic rifle. I could not see what make. I do not believe it had a bump stock on it. But it was not a pistol. It was a full-size rifle.”
The Chrysler was later found full of bullet holes abandoned on Whittlesey near the old Sears building. The shooting has left the man and his family shocked and worried about criminal street violence.
“You know, I am guilty of it. And I think everybody on the north side of town and the northeast side of town we hear these reports and we look to see where it happened and we realize it’s on the other side of town,” he said. “While we don’t like it, we take a little comfort in that it’s on the other side of town. You saw several incidents this weekend. Not just this one, this one seems to be the most brazen. But every side of town is now the other side of town.”
Since there have not been many details released on the Sunday shooting, the witness said he needed to share his story so that people could understand the extent of the incident.
WRBL has reached out to the Columbus Police Department and was told the shooting is still under investigation and no arrests have been made.
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