Shotgun blast on W Parkwood and surrounding streets Monday morning

West Parkwood Rd. residents Helen Ordway and Steve Elmore related harrowing stories to DeKalb county police early this morning. Steve and Erin Elmore’s mailbox was blasted by a shotgun fired from a car early Monday morning, May 16, sometime between 4:00 and 4:15 a.m. The shot was heard by the Elmores, by a resident across the street from the shooting, and by neighbors Helen Ordway and Sherri Lane on W Parkwood Rd. who live up the hill near East Lake Rd.

Helen Ordway reports that around 3:26 a.m. she heard 8 rounds of a handgun go off but thought the shots were coming from the East Lake MARTA station area. Then between 4:02 and 4:05 a.m., she reports hearing 3 shotgun blasts spaced about 30 seconds or less apart from each other, all coming from different directions but sounding relatively nearby.

A resident living across the street from the Elmores reports that she heard about 5 shots from a handgun that were spaced about 10 seconds apart coming from the direction of the E Parkwood Rd/W Ponce de Leon Ave intersection at around 4 a.m. Ten or fifteen minutes later, she reports hearing an explosive shotgun blast right outside her window (across the street from the Elmores) and then the sound of a car suddenly speeding away up the hill towards the East Lake Drive intersection. About 10 minutes later she heard two more shots again coming from the W Ponce direction. She finally fell asleep at 4:30 a.m. so all of what she heard occurred between 4:00 and 4:30 a.m.

Steve Elmore reports that shortly after 4:00 a.m., he and his wife Erin “heard one very loud explosion very near our house (thought it might be a transformer blowing up across the street). Erin says she heard a car drive by right after that. Then about a minute later another explosion further off (maybe near the East Lake and East Parkwood intersection). The two blasts were all we heard. Of course, later on we discovered that the first really loud explosion was the shotgun blast to our mailbox.”

Steve also reports that Mark Ordway told him that Helen heard voices outside their house on the street around the time of the shootings, and that she heard one person say, “Just drop it! Just drop it!”

Steve called DeKalb county police about 3 hours after the incident to report his property damage and was speaking with officer Tom A. Green, Sr. when Officer Green received a call from the dispatcher saying that a resident of N Ponce de Leon Ave NE had just reported finding shotgun shells or bullets in her driveway this morning as she was leaving her home.

Officer Green told Steve that at this late hour there was nothing really that police could do other than take reports of the incident from citizens who call in information. Helen Ordway also spoke to a DeKalb officer about what she heard, and both officers reprimanded Helen and Steve for not calling in the incident immediately when it occurred in the middle of the night. Helen, Steve, and the other W Parkwood resident who heard the closest-sounding blast had all thought the sound was most likely an exploding transformer on the street, as all W Parkwood residents know that transformers frequently explode on W Parkwood Rd. during inclement weather, and it did rain Monday morning.

Officer Green warned all Parkwood residents that in the future when such suspicious and unusual sounds are heard they should call the police immediately to report the event. I have left a message with the screening desk of the DeKalb county Center Precinct Office where Officer Green works to ask that he return my call in case he’d be able to supply us with more information about other reports of these events, or of any developments that may have occurred in this case since this morning.

If any PGC or surrounding neighborhoods’ residents have further information concerning these events to report to police, the case number initiated by Steve Elmore is 11-053563, and the officer’s name is Tom A. Green, Sr. He is with the Center Precinct at 770-724-7780.

You may also contact me via email if you’d like to share any information regarding this event with other PGC neighbors via this website. Please leave a comment here too.