'We all feel violated': Wife of jogger shot in wealthy suburb of Buckhead says violent crime is 'knocking on my door' amid calls for the city to secede from Atlanta and form its own police force
The wife of a jogger who was shot in the wealthy Atlanta neighborhood of Buckhead has said locals are 'very disturbed' and 'all feel violated' by an uptick in violent crime.
Andrew Worrell was jogging in Buckhead at around 8:35 a.m. on June 5 when he was shot twice, though he survived and has since been released from the hospital.
His wife Anne Worrell appeared on Fox News on Tuesday, telling host Tucker Carlson that she never imagined violent crime would 'really be knocking on my door'.
Asked if what happened to her husband felt like part of a bigger pattern, Anne agreed.
'It does. We've been saying for the past year 18 months that it just feels like its creeping in closer and closer to the neighbourhoods, I mean it's been in Buckhead but it just feels like it's getting closer and closer and I never imagined that it would really be knocking on my door like this but I think this is one reason why the citizens of Buckhead are very disturbed by this because we all feel violated.'
Anne said she felt compelled to speak up on the issue of violence in Buckhead following Andrew's shooting.
'I do feel like since it's happened to us, we need to be the next voice and maybe this can be the catalyst for some change and some action in Atlanta and specifically Buckhead,' she said.
Anne's comments came amid calls for the residential district to secede from Atlanta and form its own police force.
Anne Worrell (right) appeared on Fox News on Tuesday, telling host Tucker Carlson that the man who shot her husband Andrew was a 'complete stranger'
Andrew Worrell (right) was jogging in Buckhead at around 8:35 a.m. on June 5 when he was shot twice, though he survived and has since been released from the hospital
Andrew Wornell is pictured with a walker after having returned home from the hospital
She told Carlson that Andrew, a father-of-three, was 'still in a lot of pain' and was using a walker to get around.
'He started physical therapy yesterday but you know it's going to take a while, both physically and mentally,' she said, adding that the man who shot her husband was a 'complete stranger'.
'From what we understand the suspect in custody does suffer from multiple mental health issues and has been off of his medication and people he knows have been trying to get him help but he had a firearm and he should not have,' Anne said.
She said Andrew had been about halfway through his regular three-mile route when a car pulled up next to him.
'As the window came down he saw a gun and the guy just shot immediately and he was stunned and he shot him again and Andrew took off and ran up a little hill behind a tree and the guy took off and Andrew called 911'.
First responders found Andrew suffering from gunshot wounds to his leg and hip. He was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital.
Cops arrested and charged Gaelen Newsom, 22, with attempted murder, three counts of aggravated assault and two counts of possession of a firearm during a crime in connection with the weekend crime spree, which included Andrew's shooting.
Cops arrested and charged Gaelen Newsom (pictured), 22, with attempted murder, three counts of aggravated assault and two counts of possession of a firearm during a crime in connection with the weekend crime spree, which included Andrew's shooting
Worrell was about halfway through his regular 3-mile run on West Wesley Road in Buckhead, Atlanta, on Saturday when a silver sedan drove up to him, and a man pointed a gun at him and fired
Following the arrest, Deputy Atlanta Police Chief Charles Hampton Jr. told news outlets: 'We have information that he [Newsom] may have been suffering from some type of mental health crisis.'
Buckhead has been making a push to form its own police force and secede from the rest of the city amid skyrocketing crime rates.
Data analysis shows that Buckhead's population accounts for 20 per cent of Atlanta's population, but more than 40 per cent of the city's assessed property value.
Buckhead has seen several high-profile instances of violence in recent months, including the fatal shooting of a 7-year-old girl in December.
The sharp increase in crime rates has prompted Buckhead's residents to form the Buckhead Exploratory Committee to create its own police force and look into the possibility of breaking away from Atlanta, after around 200 officers left the city's police force in the wake of the shooting death of black man Rayshard Brooks by a white cop in June 2020.
City officials have opposed the idea to separate the wealthy, largely white neighborhood from the rest of Atlanta, which is predominantly black, arguing it would siphon away much of the city's tax base and, in turn, its budget.
According to data analysis done by Atlanta Journal Constitution in April, if Buckhead were to secede, it would remove 41 per cent, or $14billion, of the assessed value of Atlanta's property, and eviscerate its budget.
Buckhead's population is 73.5 per cent white and 23.9 per cent black. This compares to the wider Atlanta population which is 50.7 per cent black and 38 per cent white, according to Data US.
Homicides were up 63 percent across Atlanta in the period running January 1 to May 23 compared to the same period last year, crime data show.
Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms admitted in December she doesn't know how to stop the alarming wave of violence and is 'open to suggestions.'
In a previous interview with Fox News, Anne said: '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. But what is happening now is not working and people are moving because they are not safe.'
'One of the things we saw over the last summer and we have continued to see is when our youth don't have anything to do, when they are not in school full-time, when they don't have the resources available to them to do something else, they find something else to do...The system is broken.'
Rape rates skyrocketed 108 per cent, shooting incidents rose 45 per cent, robberies inched up 2 per cent and aggravated assaults jumped 29 per cent.
In terms of raw data, Atlanta had 57 murders, 302 shootings, 75 rapes, 298 robberies and 986 aggravated assaults.
Adjusting for population, a person living in Atlanta is more likely to be a victim of a serious crime, including murder and aggravated assault, than in Chicago, where crime rates are higher, reported 11Alive.
Homicides were up 63 percent across Atlanta in the period running January 1 to May 23 compared to the same period last year, rape rates skyrocketed 108 per cent, shooting incidents rose 45 per cent, robberies inched up 2 per cent and aggravated assaults jumped 29 per cent
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