A crowd of people hoping to get federal housing assistance became unruly Wednesday morning with reports of fights breaking out in the crowd.
Vino Wong, vwong@ajc.com
Crowds swarm at Tri-Cities Plaza in East Point on Wednesday morning as people try to apply for Section 8 housing.
Mike Morris/AJC, Mike Morris/AJC
Crowds line up for housing vouchers in East Point on Wednesday morning.
People began lining up at the shopping center two days ago, and by Wednesday morning the crowd had grown to over 1,000 people. East Point police, some wearing riot helmets, were patrolling the area. Firefighters and EMTs were attending to people who were overheating in the sun. College Park police and firefighters were also assisting in crowd control.
Felecia McGhee told the AJC she arrived around 6:30 a.m. Wednesday. She said the major problem began when people started breaking into the line and officials started moving the areas where they were handing out applications. She said she saw at least two small children trampled when the crowd rushed the building where the applications were to be handed out.
"It's a real mess out here," she said.
Channel 2 Action News reporter Mike Petchenik said fights were breaking out and police had to stop people who were storming the door.
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