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A mother was shot by a police officer outside of a high school in Atlanta after she showed up armed with a handgun. Police said that a group of students started fighting at Booker T. Washington High School during dismissal on Wednesday (March 30) afternoon.
The fight quickly spilled outside and onto a neighboring property.
"Some girls came over and jumped my girls, that's how everything started," the homeowner told WSB. "They were fighting in my yard, jumping my children."
A mother of one of the students arrived at the school a short time later and began waving the gun around and pointing it at students. A police officer with Atlanta Public Schools responded and ordered the woman to put down the weapon. When she refused, the officer shot her in the hand. She was treated at the scene by paramedics.
No students or school employees were injured.
The woman, who was not identified, was taken into custody and is facing multiple charges.
The woman's family defended her actions, claiming that another adult was threatening the children. They also claimed that she did not ignore the officer's commands and put down the gun before she was shot.
"It was a teenage fight, and an adult got into it, and that's what made my sister feel like she needed to protect her child," the woman's family told WGCL. "Her gun didn't go off at all, she did not pull her trigger at all, the only gun that went off was the officer who shot her after she put her gun down when he told her to."