Thoughts on The Mass Shooting at a Medical Facility in Midtown Atlanta

One woman was killed, and four others were wounded in a mass shooting at Northside Hospital Medical in Midtown Atlanta this afternoon. Three of the women are in intensive care. The suspect, who had an appointment, was apprehended near Truist Park in neighboring Cobb County.

Northside Medical is situated on West Peachtree Street between 12th and 13th, less than two blocks from where I used to work during my time in Atlanta in 2020 and 2021. I occasionally walked past the building during my lunch hour. West Peachtree Street also saw violence visited upon it during a shooting at a high rise in October 2021 resulting in the death of both the victim and the suspect followed by the murder of an Atlanta attorney by her boyfriend in February 2022. 

Mind you, Midtown Atlanta is considered a safe area and West Peachtree Street is in the heart of Midtown. Nevertheless, there is a kind of danger ever present that I felt in Atlanta that I have not felt in Boston or even in New York. The closest call I had was when our building went into lockdown during a shooting at the nearby Midtown MARTA station in March 2021. There were no fatalities, but the incident came just over a week after the Atlanta Massage Parlor shootings which left 8 people dead. I remember the police sirens making their way north when I left work that day which had such an ominous sound. 

Of course, the one that hit home the most for me was the stabbing death of Kate Janness and her dog at Piedmont Park in July 2021. This occurred exactly two months after I returned to Boston, but the incident took place only two blocks from where I lived. Nearly two years later the murder is still unsolved, and the public is still demanding better surveillance in Piedmont Park. 

Mind you, I am well aware that awful things can happen anywhere at any time. Today's shooting took place at a medical facility. I remember the murder of an ER doctor at Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital in January 2015. 

Yet notwithstanding that horrific incident, it would seem there is a far greater chance of something going horribly wrong in Atlanta than in Boston and the stats would seem to back that up. With that said, there are a lot of American cities even more dangerous than Atlanta. This is not a comforting thought. Nor is the thought but for the grace of G-d go I.