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Atlanta Police investigating 2 homicides 'within close proximity of one another'

Detectives say both killings happened on different days but near one another.

ATLANTA — Atlanta homicide detectives are asking for information on two death investigations that happened in the same area this month. 

Atlanta Police Department provided an update on Friday, saying two recent killings happened close to each other but nearly two weeks apart. 

A woman was found dead along the HOV ramp that leads to I-75 South, which goes underneath I-20 Thursday morning not far from the Gateway Center, police said.

Homicide Commander Lt. Ralph Woolfolk identified the woman as Kaci Axam on Friday.

Flyers released by APD said the 43-year-old was killed while sleeping on her cot under the I-20 bridge at Pryor Road, where she lived.

"We do suspect foul play as it pertains to this investigation," Woolfolk said.

12/24/2021: Death Investigation Presser Lt. Ralph Woolfolk, Homicide Commander

Posted by City of Atlanta Police Department on Friday, December 24, 2021

The commander said not even two weeks earlier, officers were called to another death investigation less than a half-mile away from where Axam was found.

"This individual, Jake Shorter, was found under a bridge within proximity to the individual we located yesterday," he said.

CrimeStoppers flyers say Shorter was found dead with trauma to the head under the bridge at 400 Central Ave SW on Dec. 11. Police believe he may have been in an altercation with another person the night before.

APD originally told 11Alive they had arrived at the area and found a man dead on the sidewalk with a gunshot wound near the Ralph David Abernathy Fwy, close to the Mechanicsville neighborhood.  

"We've drawn no specific correlation," Woolfolk said about the two investigations. "The only correlation that we have at this point is these incidents have happened in close proximity of each other."

Woolfolk said investigators are treating them as isolated incidents but need the public's help. 

Anyone with information is asked to call CrimeStoppers at 404-577-TIPS.

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