‘Sounded like fireworks’: Witnesses describe shootout in busy downtown Savannah area
SAVANNAH, Ga. —
Savannah police are investigating a shooting that erupted Saturday night in a busy downtown tourist area, where witnesses reported hearing dozens of gunshots.
Video obtained by WJCL shows a group of teens gathered in a parking lot near Bay Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. The man who recorded the video said he was watching from his hotel room when he saw an altercation followed by rapid gunfire.
“When my fiancée and I got to the hotel, our window was open, and we noticed this couple dozen kids out in the parking lot, and it didn’t look like it is necessarily a friendly altercation. And eventually that led to a shootout,” said Rocky Morgan, a visitor.
Morgan said he saw what appeared to be a gun during the incident.
“I can clearly see that there’s a guy in a red sweatshirt that had a gun. And it looked like he fired back and someone had some type of automatic weapon,” Morgan said.
Morgan later spoke with police about what he witnessed.
“It sounded like a lot of fire going on. Police did say it was about 60 rounds that were fired in that short amount of time from two weapons, and one of them was recovered,” Morgan said.
Savannah Police Chief Gunther said officers responded to the parking lot after receiving multiple ShotSpotter alerts.
“We recovered some video from the surrounding area. That does show at least two individuals shooting at each other. We didn’t locate any injured individuals. But we did see property damage, about three cars that had been shot up,” Gunther said.
Brook Simmons, who was staying at a nearby hotel, said she looked out her window after the shooting and saw a heavy police presence.
“There were blue lights flashing in the room through the crack of the curtain. And so I opened it up and there were, like, ten police,” Simmons said.
Simmons said she also saw officers collecting what appeared to be bullet casings before returning to the area Sunday morning.
“There were two cops holding bags. I took a picture, and it was like the bag was like a quarter filled with bullet casings that they were picking up,” Simmons said.
Police said detectives are following up on leads, but no arrests have been made so far.