CONYERS, Ga. (AP) — Someone walked into a container plant outside Atlanta and shot one of its employees early Friday, the company said.
The shooting happened around 7 a.m. and the building was evacuated, a statement from Dart Container Corp. said. Law enforcement and medical personnel were on the scene.
Rockdale County Sheriff’s spokesman Deputy Lee Thomas said the man injured in the shooting was taken to a hospital, but he did not know the extent of the injury. Deputies believe the person who fired the shots has left the plant and they were looking for them, Thomas said.
On its Facebook page, the Rockdale County Sheriff’s Office asked that people stay away from the plant.
Photos and video from news outlets show heavily armed law enforcement officers and flashing lights around a small industrial plant.
Nearby schools were put on lockdown as a precaution. Authorities also shut down a gas station next door and told an employee to stay inside, said Dion Spencer, who works there. He said police swarmed the area.
“All I know was there was a lot of them out here,” Spencer said.
About 300 people work at the plant, which makes plastic food and beverage containers, Dart Container spokeswoman Margo Burrage told The Associated Press.
Dustin Giles, the assistant store manager at the nearby Sonic Drive-In fast food restaurant, said he received multiple robocalls to “stay inside, lock your doors, a shooter is at large.”
“We got here about 7. Right about the time we got here is when we started seeing police cars, EMS and fire trucks,” Giles said. “We thought something was on fire.”
The plant is along a busy suburban highway near Interstate 20 in Conyers, a suburb about 25 miles (40 kilometers) southeast of downtown Atlanta.