ATLANTA – A 12-year-old boy from Atlanta was rushed to the hospital on Friday after a shooting near the intersection of Martin Luther King Junior Drive NW and Hamilton E. Holmes Drive NW. Investigators are now searching for the person who pulled the trigger.

The boy’s mother spoke exclusively with FOX 5 Atlanta. She said his life may never be the same.

“He was basically an innocent bystander that got shot,” the boy’s mother, who did not want to be named, said.

She told FOX 5 the boy was selling water with his older brother when someone started shooting.

Atlanta police confirmed the 12-year-old was shot multiple times just after 6 p.m.

“They was saying like a car drove by, shot at them,” the mother explained. “I’m beyond mad. It’s like I been crying, crying, crying, trying not to cry.”

The woman said her youngest son was struck three times. One of the bullets shattered his arm. A second hit him in the stomach, while a third is still lodged near his spine.

Medics rushed him to Egleston Children’s Hospital for treatment.

“They basically saying if the bullet is where his spine is at, 9 times out of 10, he could be paralyzed, ’cause he can’t feel his legs,” she said.

Atlanta police did not share additional details about a shooter. The mother told FOX 5 she believes it was a young person who pulled the trigger.

“I think shouldn’t no kids have a gun,” she said. “I think no kids should have a gun because they’re doing stuff like this, and I’m just glad my son made it.”

She says she won’t rest until she gets justice for her son. Doctors say he has a long road to recovery ahead of him.

In the meantime, the mother says she’s started a GoFundMe to try and cover his medical bills.

The Atlanta Falcons are hoping they found value for their defensive line on Day 2 and 3 of the 2024 NFL draft. In 2021, the Falcons did just that with center Drew Dalman.

Dalman was acquired in a draft-day trade with the Denver Broncos. The Broncos traded up to No. 35 and selected running back Javonte Williams. The Falcons used the 40th overall pick from the Broncos on safety Richie Grant and the fourth-round pick on Dalman.

Three years after Atlanta drafted Dalman at No. 114 overall, Pro Football Focus’ Zoltan Buday named the Falcons center the most underrated player on the team.

“With all other Atlanta offensive linemen being top-40 picks in their drafts — including three first-rounders — the former fourth-round pick Dalman could have stood out in a negative way, but that was not the case,” Buday wrote. “The Stanford product built on a promising 2022 campaign and ended up as the third-highest-graded center in the NFL in 2023 (82.3).”

Besides Dalman, the only starting offensive lineman the Falcons didn’t draft in the first round was left guard Matthew Bergeron. Atlanta grabbed him at No. 38 overall in the second round last offseason.

But according to the Pro Football Focus player grades, right guard Chris Lindstrom was the only Falcons offensive lineman better than Dalman last season. The Atlanta center earned a 82.3 PFF player grade. He particularly excelled at run blocking, posting a 90 grade.

Among centers who played 50% of his team’s snaps in 2023, Dalman was second best behind only Detroit Lions veteran Frank Ragnow. Dalman was also second best in run blocking to Ragnow.

While Dalman posted his best PFF player grades last season, he’s earned a “good” grade or better in all three of his NFL campaigns. In 2021, he had a 78.3 player grade as a rookie.

Behind that strong play, Dalman has helped the Falcons solidify their offensive line, which is a unit the team hopes will get more run blocking opportunities in 2024.

Super hyped rookie Bijan Robinson only recorded about 23% of his carries with the team possessing a lead last season. The Falcons should hope to get Robinson the ball a lot more with a lead in 2024, especially if Dalman blocks again as he did last fall.

ATLANTA (AP) — The last U.S. zoo with pandas in its care expects to say goodbye to the four giant bears this fall.

Zoo Atlanta is making preparations to return panda parents Lun Lun and Yang Yang to China along with their American-born twins Ya Lun and Xi Lun, zoo officials said Friday. There is no specific date for the transfer yet, they said, but it will likely happen between October and December.

The four Atlanta pandas have been the last in the United States since the National Zoo in Washington returned three pandas to China last November. Other American zoos have sent pandas back to China as loan agreements lapsed amid heightened diplomatic tensions between the two nations.

Atlanta received Lun Lun and Yang Yang from China in 1999 as part of a 25-year loan agreement that will soon expire.

Ya Lun and Xi Lun, born in 2016, are the youngest of seven pandas born at Zoo Atlanta since their parents arrived. Their siblings are already in the care of China’s Chengdu Research Center of Giant Panda Breeding.

It is possible that America will welcome a new panda pair before the Atlanta bears depart. The San Diego Zoo said last month that staff members recently traveled to China to meet pandas Yun Chuan and Xin Bao, which could arrive in California as soon as this summer.

Zoo Atlanta officials said in a news release they should be able to share “significant advance notice” before their pandas leave. As to whether Atlanta might see host any future pandas, “no discussions have yet taken place with partners in China,” zoo officials said.

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