A dispute over seatbelts and ride capacity ended with a 16-year-old girl shot in a Waffle House parking lot early Sunday morning.
📍 What Happened: Five teenage girls called an Uber to leave the Waffle House on Chamblee Dunwoody Road around 2:30 a.m. Sunday. The driver said his car could only fit four passengers because he didn’t have enough seatbelts.
An argument broke out over who should cancel the trip. According to police, one girl threatened to kill the driver and hit him in the face while he sat in his car. The driver then fired a gun, striking the girl who had assaulted him.
The other four girls told responding officers no assault or threat occurred before the gunfire.
🏥 The Victim: The 16-year-old was taken to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta with critical injuries. She remains in stable condition.
👮 The Arrest: Police arrested 38-year-old Meredith Grundy at the scene. He faces charges of aggravated assault and possession of a firearm during a felony. He’s being held at DeKalb County Jail.
🔍 Between the Lines: The conflicting accounts from the driver and the teenage witnesses will likely determine whether prosecutors view this as self-defense or an escalation that crossed into criminal violence.
Georgia law allows people to use force to defend themselves, but the response must be proportional to the threat.
📞 What’s Next: Dunwoody police are asking anyone with information to contact Detective Darryl Moses at darryl.moses@dunwoodyga.gov.
The Sources: Dunwoody Police Department.
B.T. Clark
B.T. Clark is an award-winning journalist and the Publisher of The Georgia Sun. He has 25 years of experience in journalism and served as Managing Editor of Neighbor Newspapers in metro Atlanta for 15 years and Digital Director at Times-Journal Inc. for 8 years. His work has appeared in several newspapers throughout the state including Neighbor Newspapers, The Cherokee Tribune and The Marietta Daily Journal. He is a Georgia native and a fifth-generation Georgian.
