Gunfire near the Oakland City MARTA station sent law enforcement officers rushing to the Southwest Atlanta transit hub Wednesday afternoon, and by the time the scene cleared, two people were in custody and no injuries or property damage had been reported.
The shots rang out around 3:45 p.m. near the station at 1400 Lee Street SW, according to WSB-TV, during the afternoon in Southwest Atlanta. MARTA police stopped a suspect at the train station after the gunfire was reported nearby, the station's report states, and that person was later turned over to the Atlanta Police Department. Atlanta police ultimately took two people into custody, per the same account.
A Station Already Under Scrutiny
Wednesday's incident is the latest in a string of violent episodes to hit the same stretch of Lee Street. On April 27, 16-year-old Xavier Wright was fatally shot during an exchange of gunfire in the station's bus loop, a case that led to murder charges against Stacey Walker and Bernard Antonio Cooper III, while two additional suspects were still wanted, according to 11Alive. Just over a month later, on May 30, 66-year-old Margaret Swan was fatally stabbed aboard a train as it pulled into Oakland City Station in an unprovoked attack, as reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The May stabbing was followed by federal scrutiny of MARTA's security.
That scrutiny reached the federal level in June, when U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy ordered the Federal Transit Administration to launch a formal safety and security audit of MARTA following the series of violent incidents across the system, per 11Alive. MARTA Police Chief Scott Kreher and interim CEO Jonathan Hunt have since pushed state lawmakers to enact a gun ban on public transit, pointing out that Georgia's open-carry laws currently prevent MARTA from banning firearms on buses and trains, per that same outlet.
Crime Numbers Down, Anxiety Still High
MARTA's own data tells a more encouraging story on paper. In a June submission to federal regulators, the agency reported that systemwide Part 1 serious crimes dropped 25% from 2024 to 2025, with aggravated assaults falling 27% and robberies declining 35%, according to Capitol Beat. The agency has also expanded its sworn police force from 230 officers in mid-2025 to 268 by June, pushing projected fiscal year 2026 police expenditures to $58.7 million, a 22% increase over the prior year, the outlet reports.
MARTA also runs a central Real-Time Crime Center linked to more than 12,000 surveillance cameras across buses, train cars, and stations, giving officers a tool to detect and respond to incidents in real time, according to FOX 5 Atlanta. Separately, Georgia law already criminalizes reckless gunfire near roadways: under Georgia Code § 16-11-103, discharging a firearm within 50 yards of a public highway without legal justification is a misdemeanor carrying penalties of up to $1,000 in fines and 12 months in jail, according to Justia Law.
A Neighborhood Mid-Transformation
The gunfire also lands in a corner of Southwest Atlanta undergoing major change. The area includes the 20-acre Murphy Crossing mixed-use project adjacent to MARTA rail and the 1.3-mile Oakland + Murphy Connector Trail linking the station to the Atlanta BeltLine, as Hoodline has previously detailed. The area has now seen repeated bursts of violence within the same year.
Wednesday's shots-fired incident is not an isolated flashpoint. Hoodline has reported on prior gunfire near the same station in April, as well as neighborhood violence in Oakland City more broadly. As of Wednesday evening, no injuries or property damage had been reported in connection with the latest incident, and police have not released additional details about what led to the gunfire or the identities of those detained.
