A former Carter's employee allegedly stormed the children's clothing store at Perimeter Village in Dunwoody, hurling rocks at the manager and a coworker and spraying a fire extinguisher through the air as terrified staff locked themselves inside a back office. By the time police tracked the man down at his apartment complex, he told officers he had taken fentanyl, and they administered naloxone before rushing him to a hospital.
The attack unfolded after 3:30 p.m. on Nov. 2, according to Appen Media, which reported that Dunwoody police arrived to find the store's lights out and thick fog from the fire extinguisher filling the air. The former worker allegedly threw clothes onto the floor and rocks at the manager and another staff member. Two employees had hidden in an office, and he then allegedly kicked and banged on the locked door with the extinguisher.
Panic Button Triggers Police Response
The store manager pressed a panic button at the back of the store as the chaos unfolded, the outlet's report states. Officers who responded searched the store with a K-9 unit but did not find the man inside. The manager told police the former employee had entered carrying a metal pipe and had declared, “I am closing this store down and killing all of you,” according to the same account.
The attack came a day after an earlier confrontation. On Nov. 1, the former employee allegedly threatened the manager's life and said he would burn down the store, prompting responding officers to issue him a criminal trespass warning, per the report. The man had reportedly been fired from Carter's after failing to show up to work for five consecutive days.
Overdose Reversed, Suspect Taken Into Custody
Police eventually located the man at his apartment complex, where officers described him as being in a manic state, the outlet's report notes. He claimed he had taken fentanyl, and officers administered naloxone, an opioid-overdose antidote. Police took the former employee into custody and then transported him to Northside Hospital for treatment.
The case echoes a separate 2023 incident in Dunwoody in which first responders revived a man at a salon in the Shops at Dunwoody after a suspected fentanyl-laced delivery and transported him to a local hospital, according to an earlier Appen Media report. The Georgia Department of Public Health has said drug overdoses sharply increased beginning in 2020 amid fentanyl's growing presence in illicit drugs, including stimulants like cocaine and methamphetamine, and that its Drug Surveillance Unit tracks overdose trends across the state.
