A gun went off inside a Conyers AutoZone store on Monday, wounding an employee in the leg after a coworker who was handling the firearm accidentally discharged it. Conyers Police say the injured worker was taken for medical care, and the employee who had been manipulating the gun now faces a reckless conduct charge.
Conyers Police reported that the shooting happened at the AutoZone location on Highway 138 near Pine Log Road NE, according to WSB-TV. Officers said the firearm went off while the employee was manipulating it, striking the coworker in the leg. Police asked people to avoid the area around the store while they worked the scene, though the station's report notes no other information was immediately provided about what led up to the incident.
The address mattered more than usual in this case. Conyers actually has two separate AutoZone stores along Highway 138, roughly ten minutes apart, and that overlap sowed some early confusion about exactly where the emergency was unfolding, as reported by 11Alive. Officers eventually localized the incident to the store near Pine Log Road NE.
Police Moved Quickly to Calm Public Fears
Before the specifics were sorted out, Conyers Police posted an emergency public notice on social media telling drivers to avoid the Highway 138 corridor and take alternate routes while first responders worked the active scene, according to FOX 5 Atlanta. That initial alert raised concerns of an ongoing or active situation. Police quickly clarified there was no ongoing threat to the public once they determined the shooting stemmed from an employee accidentally discharging a firearm rather than any kind of attack.
The Conyers Police Department's investigation remains ongoing, and it is not yet clear whether AutoZone maintains a policy prohibiting employees from carrying firearms on the sales floor or whether the company has taken any disciplinary action beyond the criminal charge. The condition of the coworker who was shot has also not been detailed beyond confirmation that the person was taken for medical care.
What Reckless Conduct Charges Carry Under Georgia Law
The employee accused of causing the shooting was charged with reckless conduct rather than a more serious offense, reflecting the accidental nature of the discharge as police described it. Under Georgia Code O.C.G.A. § 16-5-60, reckless conduct is defined as consciously disregarding a substantial and unjustifiable risk through criminal negligence that endangers another person's bodily safety, and it is prosecuted as a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine, according to Atlanta Criminal Defense Attorneys. The standard requires a gross deviation from reasonable care rather than any intent to harm.
The case also touches on the legal terrain private employers occupy when it comes to guns at work. Under Georgia's Business Security and Employee Privacy Act, O.C.G.A. § 16-11-135, private employers retain the authority to ban firearms inside store premises even though licensed gun owners have a statutory right to keep locked firearms in their vehicles on employer lots, per IllinoisCarry. Whether AutoZone's own policy factors into this case has not been addressed by police.
A Broader Pattern of Retail Gun Mishaps
This isn’t the first time this summer that an accidental firearm discharge inside a retail store has made headlines in Metro Atlanta. Hoodline previously reported that gunfire at an Ellenwood Walmart grazed two shoppers earlier this month, a case that also resulted in reckless conduct-style charges. Nationally, preliminary CDC data released this month showed unintentional shootings across the country dropped by almost 8 percent in 2025 compared to 2024, alongside an overall 5 percent decline in fatal shooting deaths, according to The Trace. Giffords Law Center notes that unintentional or accidental shootings still account for roughly 1.1 percent of all firearm-related deaths nationwide each year.
Conyers, the seat of Rockdale County located 24 miles east of downtown Atlanta, has grown to an estimated population of 21,047 in 2026, up from 17,305 during the 2020 Census, according to World Population Review. The Highway 138 corridor where the AutoZone sits functions as a key retail hub for the broader county, which has itself grown past 99,000 residents. The area has seen other violent incidents investigated by Conyers police in recent years, including a March 2023 shooting on Railroad Street in Olde Town Conyers in which a 29-year-old woman was shot in a dispute inside a vehicle.
For now, the investigation into Monday's shooting continues, and Conyers Police have not released additional details beyond the reckless conduct charge against the employee who was handling the gun.
