As Fulton County’s district attorney, Fani Willis, spends enormous time and resources prosecuting the state’s election interference case against President Trump, a gas station in downtown Atlanta is the latest business affected by the city’s surging crime. 

A RaceTrac gas station — in Fulton County and near Georgia State University — announced it is closing, effective immediately, days after a man was shot and killed outside its doors. 

“I am deeply saddened by the recent senseless acts of violence at and near this store,” RaceTrac’s chief executive, Natalie Morhous, said in a statement. “As an Atlanta-based business, we did not reach this decision lightly.”

She added that the closure was difficult because the nearby community depends on the gas station.

“We know how important our stores are to the community: They are open to guests 24/7/365, they create local jobs, they generate taxes, and play a critical role in the states in which they operate,” she said. “However, RaceTrac can only be successful when our stores are safe for our team members and our guests.”

A shooting last weekend — the latest in a series of shootings that have happened nearby in recent years, including the killing of a 24-year-old GSU student and a 19-year-old woman — ended in the death of 21-year-old Javare Shakir-Fulford, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. 

GSU’s president, Brian Blake, met with the gas station in an effort to find ways to ramp up security, the Journal-Constitution noted, and the decision to close the gas station was made quickly after that meeting. 

Although Atlanta’s  135 homicides in 2023 represented a decrease from 2022, vehicle thefts surged by 61 percent and shoplifting increased by 22 percent last year, Axios reported. 

A 2023 Metro Atlanta Speaks survey indicated that the No.1 issue for Atlanta residents is crime, as 27 percent said it was top of mind. 

Ms. Willis, elected the same year a slew of similar progressive prosecutors came into power across the country — including San Francisco’s Chesa Boudin, Chicago’s Kim Foxx, and New York’s Alvin Bragg — promised she would work to “make everyone in our county safer.” She has received credit for cracking down on gang crime, but has faced criticism, especially from President Trump, for being overly focused on prosecuting him despite the crime problems on her doorstep. He has said on TruthSocial that Ms. Willis is a “young, ambitious, Radical Left Democrat ‘Prosecutor’ from Georgia, who is presiding over one of the most Crime Ridden and Corrupt places in the USA.”