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According to CNN, authorities have apprehended the accused shooter who shot and killed a 38-year-old woman and injured four others at a Midtown Atlanta medical building.
Deion Patterson, 24, was apprehended without incident after an undercover officer spotted him north of the city in suburban Cobb County several hours after the 12:30 pm shooting at the Northside Medical Center, according to police.
Patterson, 24, raced into the hospital about midday and shot the first victim within minutes, according to Atlanta Police Deputy Chief Charles Hampton.
According to authorities, the suspect was armed with a revolver when he fled and subsequently commandeered a car to flee.
Amy St Pierre, an employee of the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was identified as the tragic victim, according to the Fulton County medical examiner’s office.
All of the injured, who ranged in age from 25 to 71, were rushed to a local Atlanta hospital. According to hospital sources, three of the injured were in critical condition when they arrived at their respective emergency rooms.
Cops encouraged residents and visitors to the neighborhood to seek safety as they searched for the alleged shooter in the aftermath of the latest mass shooting in Atlanta. “It was a “difficult day” for the city,” claimed the mayor.
“This was a horrible act of gun violence, but equally horrifying is that we know it is not unique in our country,” Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens stated on Wednesday night.
“We need more actions to protect our citizens’ rights to go about their lives, to be able to go to a doctor’s office, a supermarket, a gas station, or their school without fear of being shot.”
The motive for the shooting, as well as whether the gunman knew or targeted any of his victims, remained unknown, according to authorities.
“We know he had an appointment at the facility, but why he did what he did, all of that is under investigation,” Atlanta’s deputy police head of criminal investigations, Charles Hampton, said following the arrest at a news conference.
At an earlier press conference, Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum stated that it was too early in the investigation to determine whether the five women who were shot were patients or employees.
Cobb County detectives Chief Stuart VanHoozer told reporters that during the investigation, detectives investigated a structure under construction that the suspect had entered near Battery Atlanta, a commercial complex being erected adjacent to Truist Park stadium, home of the Atlanta Braves baseball team. But, he said, the search was fruitless.
The suspect’s apparent close proximity to the Battery “was a concern to us because many people would be at that location,” according to the chief.
According to VanHoozer, police evaluated a flood of surveillance camera photos and phone tips from the public on sightings to eventually narrow down the suspect’s whereabouts.
The gunman arrived at the hospital with his mother, but she was unharmed, according to Schierbaum. According to police, she and other family members are collaborating with investigations.
Little was known about the suspect’s background at the time.
Patterson joined the Coast Guard in July 2018 and was dismissed from active duty in January after serving as an electrician’s mate second class. There was no explanation for his discharge.
Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens called the massacre the latest in a “national epidemic of gun violence” that has turned schools, workplaces, churches, and doctors’ offices into potential killing zones.
According to him, active-shooter drills have become so prevalent that a business in the Cobb County region where Patterson was apprehended happened to be conducting one as police closed in on the suspect nearby.
