A man armed with a machete went door to door at a DeKalb County, Georgia apartment complex late Wednesday night, kicking at doors and threatening to kill residents inside. A 74-year-old resident described barricading her failing door with a sofa after he attacked it, convinced he intended to kill people in the building.
After breaking into another tenant’s apartment, that tenant shot him, causing non-life-threatening injuries; he was hospitalized and no one else was hurt. The account comes from residents who spoke to local media, as authorities have not released the man’s identity, detailed the sequence of events, or announced charging decisions, and the incident remains under investigation.
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DEKALB COUNTY, GA — A tenant at a DeKalb County apartment complex shot a man armed with a machete late Wednesday night after the man went door to door through the building, kicking at apartments and threatening to kill the people inside, residents say.
The complex sits off Snapfinger Woods Drive, as reported by WSB-TV. The wounded man was taken to a hospital with what investigators described as non-life-threatening injuries. Authorities have not released his name, and no one else was hurt.
One of the doors he worked on belonged to a 74-year-old woman identified only as Ms. Brown. She told WSB-TV she was jarred awake around 11:30 p.m. by someone kicking her door.
“I heard bam, bam, bam,” she said. “A mad man had a machete.”
Brown said the man appeared angry about a cross and another religious item she had displayed outside her apartment. He cursed at her. He yelled threats. He moved down the hall and kicked at other doors, then came back to hers and started again.
“The door started coming out. I had to take my sofa and push it against the door because it was coming out of the frame,” she said. “I was terrified beyond words.”
A 74-year-old woman braced a sofa against a failing door with a man and a machete on the other side of it. She had no way out of that apartment and no way to make him stop. That is the position every other resident in that hallway was in too, and it is why the man’s next stop mattered so much.
Residents say he kept moving through the building, kicking at several doors and trying to force his way in. He got into one. Another tenant shot him when he broke into that tenant’s apartment, according to the residents who spoke with WSB-TV. A short time later, Brown heard the gunfire.
“I don’t know who shot him. I’m glad someone did shoot him,” she said. “Because he was wielding around that machete, and he was planning to kill people.”
A machete is a contact weapon. By the time an apartment door gives way, the distance between the man holding it and the person inside is a few steps, and the rest of the building had already heard what he intended to do with it. The account residents gave also has the tenant firing when the man came through his own door, not going out into the hallway to find him. The threat came to him, and he stopped it there.
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Everything reported so far comes from residents. Investigators have not publicly described the sequence of events, the wounded man’s identity has not been released, and no charging decision has been reported. The incident remains under investigation.
Brown described the man as completely out of control. “Completely insane. Couldn’t be in his right mind,” she said. The dents he left in the doors are still there.
