This Atlanta Police Department photo shows guns Rico Marley was armed with at the time of his arrest Wednesday. AP hide caption
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AP
This Atlanta Police Department photo shows guns Rico Marley was armed with at the time of his arrest Wednesday.
AP
A 22-year-old man armed with multiple guns was arrested Wednesday in Atlanta after a shopper overheard him loading guns in a grocery store bathroom.
Charles Russell was walking into the toilet in a Publix supermarket when, according to a police incident report. Then he saw an AR-15-style rifle leaning against the wall.
Russell, who works as a buyer for Instacart grocery delivery service, hurried to alert Publix staff, who then called security. Shortly thereafter, an Atlanta police officer arrived at the store and arrested Rico Marley, who was found with six loaded firearms, including four handguns, an AR-15 rifle and a shotgun.
According to the report, Marley also wore body armor.
While police haven’t yet said why Marley brought the guns to the store, Russell said the rifle pissed him off after the mass shootings days earlier in a Boulder, Colorado, grocery store that killed 10 people. This attack took place less than a week later a series of shootouts killed eight people, including six Asian women, in spas in the Atlanta area.
“That species frightened me again with the recent events that happened at the Colorado grocery store,” said Russell WSB-TV, an Atlanta television station.
One person who worked as an Instacart buyer was, according to a Explanation by the company.
The successive events in Atlanta and Colorado have put mass shootings back into the national political spotlight.
After the boulder attack, President Biden urged Congress Adopt gun control measures that would prohibit offensive weapons and high capacity magazines. When asked about federal laws and measures taken by the executive to control guns during his first press conference as presidentBiden suggested that his next big initiative would be infrastructure.
“It’s a matter of timing,” said Biden.
Marley, the suspect of the Publix incident, was reported by a Press release from the Atlanta Police Department. He was taken to Fulton County Jail on Wednesday.
Russell said WSB-TV that public spaces like grocery stores and cinemas no longer feel safe.
“To be able to stop it, if it should be something, it was important to me,” he said. “I don’t want to see them yet [weapons] no longer in public places. “
