Anne Worrell on husband being shot while jogging in Atlanta suburb: ‘People are moving because they feel unsafe’
Anne Worrell, the wife of a jogger who was shot in Buckhead, Georgia, discusses residents of the Atlanta suburb pushing for their own police force.
Anne Worrell, the wife of a Georgia jogger who was shot in the Buckhead, told "America’s Newsroom" on Thursday that residents of the wealthy Atlanta suburb are leaving the area due to the surge in crime amid the push to defund the police.
"Over the last 12 to 18 months it has just gotten worse and worse, and as you talk to other people that we know in the area, we just felt it creeping closer and closer into our neighborhood. So it has been felt by everybody here," Worrell acknowledged.
A seemingly unprovoked weekend violence spree through Atlanta’s ritzy Buckhead neighborhood has highlighted what area officials see as a need for more security and public safety protocols, as the recent crime jump has made some residents too scared to even pump gas at certain places, Fox News has learned.
On Thursday, the Buckhead City Committee, formerly the Buckhead Exploratory Committee, will be demanding emergency hearings as part of its ongoing effort to become a separate entity from the city of Atlanta, said Bill White, the group’s CEO and chairman.
"Given everything that's been going on here, it's getting worse and worse and worse," White told Fox News on Wednesday. "So what we're doing because of the murders going through the roof and the attempted murders, and the lack of leadership and nothing changing – the insanity continues – is we're demanding emergency hearings on our cityhood bills."
On Tuesday, Atlanta police had arrested a 22-year-old man for shooting at three people – wounding a local father of three who was out for his morning walk – and subsequently injuring a man after hitting him with his car during a crime spree through one of the state’s wealthiest zip codes over the weekend, according to authorities.
Andrew Worrell was walking in Atlanta’s Buckhead neighborhood around 8:35 a.m. Saturday when he was shot twice, according to police and his wife, Anne.
The gunman, identified by authorities as 22-year-old Gaelen Newsom, first shot Worrell in the leg, then fired another round as "Andrew turned to run," Anne Worrell wrote. "The second shot went through Andrew’s hip and into his ball-and-socket joint, then into his lower abdomen before landing in his right hip," she continued.
Worrell said Newsom then shot off a third round toward Andrew, but missed.
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Worrell argued that the "system is broken," and that "people are moving because they do not feel safe."
"I don’t have the answers, but there are people in place who are supposed to be making changes and action needs to be taken. If it’s not working, let’s fix it. Let’s get together focus groups or restructure the system," Worrell concluded. "But what is happening now is not working."
Fox News' Stephanie Pagones contributed to this report.
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