A woman killed in Midtown Atlanta Friday in what police say is an apparent murder-suicide was a Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker secretary, the firm's Atlanta managing partner, Philip J. Marzetti, confirmed Friday evening. Police said a man shot and killed the woman and then turned the gun on himself outside the Bank of America Plaza, Atlanta's tallest building.
Marzetti said that the secretary, Raven Buckley, had been with the firm for about a year. The shooter was not a firm employee, he said, but the employee of a local temporary agency who had been working for the last three months in the firm's records center.
The incident happened at a picnic table in the courtyard outside the skyscraper around 3:30 p.m. Paul Hastings' Atlanta offices are in that building.
The man and woman got into a verbal argument that soon turned physical, said Atlanta Police Officer Ron Campbell. The man then held the woman down and shot her before shooting himself, Campbell said.
Police arrived at the scene to find two bodies. Campbell didn't know if the two had a personal relationship.
The west entrance to the 1,023-foot-tall building was draped in yellow tape Friday afternoon. Campbell said witnesses described a "pretty panicked scene" in the shooting's aftermath, as workers alarmed by the gunfire scrambled to call authorities.
"We're shocked and deeply saddened by this tragedy," Marzetti said in a phone message, "And it's got everyone here quite upset, as you might imagine. In any event, our principal concerns right now are with our employee's family, friends and her co-workers, make sure that they're doing OK.
"The last three hours have been some of the worst of my life," he added later.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
