70-Year-Old Man Taken Into Custody After Gunfire Exchange With SWAT In Atlanta Four Seasons Hotel

OAN Staff Blake Wolf
11:06 AM – Monday, October 28, 2024

A man was taken into custody following a multi-hour standoff with SWAT teams after the man began opening fire from the balcony of an Atlanta Four Seasons hotel.

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Steven Berger, 70, of Atlanta was taken into custody after having a ‘mental health crisis’ which saw the suspect throwing chairs out of his balcony.

Neighbors living in a high rise apartment across the street began videotaping the odd behavior, before they realized he had a gun and began firing at them, prompting the neighbors to take cover.

Atlanta Chief of Police, Darin Schierbaum, explained that officers responded to a call around 10 a.m. regarding a mental health emergency after Berger reportedly got into an exchange with a hotel employee.

Berger was reportedly wearing a Halloween mask and began firing after realizing he was being caught on camera by the residents across the street, which sent SWAT teams rushing to the scene as they began evacuating individuals in the hotel.

“We heard 10 shots. We walked outside, got everything on camera – the man throwing couches, shooting – Very chaotic, very random. This is Atlanta. This is not a real place,” stated one witness who recorded the unfolding chaos.

Berger also fired through the walls of the hotel, injuring one officer who suffered non-life-threatening injuries.

“So, we looked up, and we was trying to look for him, and we seen him. We looked at him for like five seconds and next thing you know ‘boom, boom, boom,’ he starts shooting again. So, it was like, we ducked behind here, and we just watching him,” stated Jordan Hall, another onlooker. “It was like we were in the middle of a movie.”

During the standoff officers exchanged fire with the gunman, after which he was arrested and seen with blood on his face.

Somewhere during the exchange, officers explained Berger threw one of his guns onto the street below, and that he had been armed with a shotgun, a rifle, and a handgun.