Rescue workers prepare to transport a
shooting victim from the CNN complex in Atlanta, Tuesday, April 3, 2007,
after a domestic dispute erupted in gunfire inside CNN's headquarters
complex, killing one person and critically wounding another, authorities
said.(Xinhua Photo)
BEIJING, April 4 (Xinhaunet) -- A man identified by
police as a former boyfriend shot and killed a woman Tuesday afternoon inside
the CNN Center in Atlanta, Georgia, before being shot by a Turner security
officer, police said.
Preliminary reports indicate the suspect was
shot in the face, a law enforcement source said on the condition of anonymity
because the investigation is ongoing.
Investigators have not released a name, saying the
man was not carrying any identification.
The shooting victim, 22-year-old Clara Riddles, was
transported to Grady Memorial Hospital where she died from her injuries.
The shooter was also taken to the hospital where he
was undergoing surgery and was in "severely critical condition," the hospital
said.
Witness Charles Williams was riding up the escalator
toward the Omni Hotel lobby when he saw the man pulling his victim by her hair
with his left hand.
She was screaming and crying and holding on to her
hair close to her head with both hands, Williams said.
"I was walking directly toward them and he and I were
eye-to-eye, and so I started looking at his right hand to see if he had
something," said Williams.
The suspect warned Williams, "Get out my way,
pimpin'."
"I knew you don't say that to someone unless you got
something," said Williams, who said he tried to see if the man was holding a
weapon but couldn't see the man's right hand.
Williams moved aside and quickly motioned for the
nearest security officer to come to him.
"I was saying, 'Come here quickly, come!'"
Williams lost sight of the man and woman as they
turned into a hallway outside the CNN.com newsroom. The officer radioed in a
disturbance report and soon other security officers were on the scene.
John Helton, a CNN.com producer, had a clear view of
the gunman through glass doors.
"I saw him coming down the escalator pulling her
along, around the corner. He ran into the plant and that's when they started
struggling," he said.
"She seemed to be trying to wrestle free of him," he
said.
Helton said the woman appeared to be shot at
point-blank range.
"He looked like he had the gun right on top of her
head and shot her."
The gunman was then shot by Capt. Odell Adams, who
joined Turner Security in 1996, according to a spokesperson for Turner, the
parent company for CNN.
Riddles was working Tuesday at the Omni Hotel where
she had been employed for about a year, hotel spokesman Michael Sullivan said.
She worked in the Honor Bar department restocking minibars in the rooms.
Atlanta police called the shooting a "domestic
situation."