New video that shows how police caught the MARTA shooter in less than a minute

ATLANTA - A man shot four people on a MARTA train just as passengers started crowding onto the mass-transit system because of the I-85 collapse.

Channel 2 Action News has now obtained exclusive new video that shows how police caught the shooter in less than a minute.

MARTA Police Chief Wanda Dunham told Channel 2 investigative reporter Mark Winne on Tuesday that she's proud of how her officers responded and gave us the play-by-play over exclusive surveillance video.

“The officer is standing on the platform. No one has called anything yet. This is the suspect. He comes, goes up the down escalator, he trips and falls. The officer goes back because now he knows there's several patrons hurt. He's going to go back and render aid. But he's going to call in on his police radio. As you can see the officers were responding, one in high visibility uniform, one in regular uniform,” Dunham said, showing Winne the video from the Westlake MARTA station that day.

Dunham said the suspect stumbled as he ran up the down escalator at the station April 13, running from the train where four people had been shot, one fatally.

“He knew that there were several officers waiting upstairs,” Dunham said, adding that her officers did not stumble in how they responded.

“It only took a minute from the time that the train arrived at the Westlake Station to the time that our officers had him in custody,” Dunham said.

The chief said the Westlake incident exemplifies some things you can't prevent, but you can prepare.

That's why MARTA police brought together 200 key players from the FBI, TSA, Atlanta police and fire, among others Tuesday for a tabletop exercise in how to respond in a crisis.

“It's who's who in public safety and law enforcement who come together to make sure we don't have any gaps and what gaps we have if we can identify those gaps to resolve them before the end of the day,” Atlanta Fire Chief Joel Baker said.

MARTA police Lt. Aston Greene said participants brainstormed in response to one scenario.

“What you see here today is an example of where preparedness is a strategy,” Greene said. “Essentially, you start to prepare for the impossible.

Then a second chapter…

“MARTA is a safe system. You know things happen, but it's how we respond to those things that happen that sets us apart,” Dunham said.

Dunham said Tuesday’s exercise where the make-believe scenario was about a warning, then bombings on July 4th, did identify some gaps to be addressed and that's why they conduct such tests.

Winne contacted the suspect’s lawyers for a response about this story, but never heard back from them.