After a verbal dispute turned into a shooting, police spokesperson Lt. Germain Dearlove confirmed on Sunday the death of one person and the injury of five others near the Atlantic Station shopping area in Atlanta, Georgia.

Off-duty police officers drove a "group of juveniles" out of the Station as a result of "unruly behavior and also curfew violations," after which they later moved to another street where their verbal altercation escalated and then turned into gunfire, around 8:00 pm local time.

At a press briefing, Dearlove said: "We have one deceased on scene, and, as for right now, we have five victims shot, at area hospitals," adding that those involved were of ages "between 15 to 21 years old,"   

Homicide investigators are still conducting work on the scene to establish those identified and the motives behind the shooting, but according to Dearlove, police believe there were two shooters.

So far in 2022, the Gun Violence Archive website has tracked more than 600 mass shootings in the United States -- defined as an incident with four or more people shot or killed, not including the shooter.

It is worth noting that mass shootings have shocked the country on numerous occasions, reigniting debate on gun control, a contentious cultural issue that has made little progress in US Congress.

In June, US President Joe Biden pleaded for lawmakers to pass stricter gun control laws, including a ban on assault weapons, in a bid to clamp down on unprecedented levels of mass shootings across the United States that have been turning American communities into "killing fields". So far, no action has been taken.