Three people were killed and four others were injured in less than 48 hours over a violent Thanksgiving holiday, according to Atlanta police.

The incidents happened days after Atlanta recorded its 130th homicide in 2020, making it the deadliest year on record in nearly two decades, AJC.com previously reported.

Police on Thursday were sent to a home in northwest Atlanta after a man was shot and killed by a bystander during an argument, officials said.

Officers went to the 2200 block of Carver Drive in northwest Atlanta about 5:15 p.m. Thursday, according to police spokeswoman Officer TaSheena Brown. Police at the scene found 38-year-old David Denson with a gunshot wound to his torso, she said.

He was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital, where he died.

Investigators said Denson was shot while “in the commission of an aggravated assault following a verbal argument.” The details of that incident are not clear.

The man who fired the shots was briefly detained by police, Brown said. It is not clear if he was charged.

The fatal incident was one of five that Atlanta police officers were called to investigate on Thanksgiving Day.

Around 1:30 a.m., police were called to Grady after a woman was dropped off with a gunshot wound to the back. A friend who took her to the hospital told police their vehicle had been hit by gunfire after they had been with an acquaintance in the 1500 block of Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. The victim, whom police did not identify, was reported Thursday morning to be in critical condition but stable.

Later, a man was shot in what officers were told was a dispute with a neighbor at a home on Lakewood Avenue. The victim, identified as William Robinson, 36, suffered a gunshot wound to the hand, as well as several stab wounds to the back. Police said Robinson would not say what happened or who shot him. However, police said the victim’s wife told them he was shot during a dispute with a neighbor at their rooming house. The neighbor fled, she said.

About 5 p.m. Thursday, police responded to a shooting in the 800 block of Mayson Turner Boulevard, Channel 2 Action News reported. They found a man shot in the shoulder. The victim was transported and treated at Grady.

About an hour later, police were sent to the 1500 block of Hardee Street after a man was shot in the head, the news station reported. Investigators said he died at the scene. No information was available about a suspect.

On Wednesday, police had been called to investigate two other shootings, one of which resulted in a man’s death.

Shortly after 10 p.m., officers responding to a report of a person shot outside a Moreland Avenue grocery store found a man with a gunshot wound to the head. Despite efforts by emergency crews to save him, he died from his injuries, police said. His identity has not been released.

Also Wednesday, a man working as a security guard at a complex on Woodland Avenue was shot in the leg after apparently chasing two men he had recognized from a previous incident, according to preliminary information from police. The victim, Demetric Howard, 26, was taken to Grady, where he was in stable condition Thursday. Howard told police he returned fire at the men and was unsure if he had struck them.

Atlanta hasn’t seen homicide counts this high since 2003, when there were 148 killings across the city, records show. According to the police department’s latest crime data, murders are up more than 40% compared to this time last year and shootings are up 35%, though most other crimes are down amid the pandemic.

— Data specialist Jennifer Peebles contributed to this article.