Two shot in CNN building

<p>A person was killed and another critically wounded by a shooting inside the building complex that houses CNN's headquarters in what police described as a "domestic situation."</p><p>A man and a woman were involved in an argument near the main entrance of the complex when the man pulled a gun and shot the woman, and then the armed man was shot by a CNN security guard responding to the scene, Atlanta Police Officer James Polite said.</p><p>One of the people transported to Grady Hospital was pronounced dead on arrival, hospital spokeswoman Denise Simpson said. It was not immediately clear who had died, the man or the woman.</p><p>Simpson said the other person was in critical condition.</p><p>A man and a woman were seen being carried out of the building on stretchers. The man's face was covered in blood and his shirt was removed.</p><p>CNN reported that the offices of its Internet operations, CNN.com, were immediately evacuated. Video footage showed police pointing guns at a man lying on the ground inside the building.</p><p>An announcement over the building's public-address system said there had been gunfire "with potential casualties by the escalators" near the main entrance of the building, facing Centennial Olympic Park.</p><p>"I heard four or five shots. I really didn't see it. I got out of there quick," said Jas Stanford, 27, who had been helping take down a temporary stage in the park used for college basketball's Final Four festitivies.</p><p>Besides CNN, the complex includes the Omni Hotel, a large atrium and food court, and it's connected to Philips Arena, home of the NBA's Atlanta Hawks and NHL's Atlanta Thrashers. Nearby is the Georgia Dome, the home of the NFL's Atlanta Falcons and where college basketball's national championship game was played Monday night.</p><p>Jacques Richard, 60, of Paris was part of a group touring the CNN studios when he heard the gunfire. He said the group was immediately brought down an elevator and dispersed. "We had our guide with us and everyone was calm," he said.</p><p>In the food court, Trina Johnson, 44, of Atlanta, was with her daughter on a family outing when the shots were fired.</p><p>"All of a sudden we heard a big boom. We thought it was an explosion," she said. "We didn't see the gun. Everybody just started running."</p><p>It was just across the street, in Centennial Olympic Park, where a bomb exploded during the 1996 Summer Olympics, killing a woman and wounding more than 100 people.</p><p>----</p><p>Associated Press Writers Harry R. Weber and Daniel Yee contributed to this report.</p>

http://accesswdun.com/article/2007/4/102661