The suspect in a mass shooting in Atlanta that left one woman dead and four others wounded has been charged with one count of murder and four counts of aggravated assault, Fulton County Jail records show.
Deion Patterson was awaiting his first court appearance Thursday after police say he opened fire in the waiting room of an Atlanta medical practice Wednesday. Workers and others in a bustling commercial district took shelter for hours during the manhunt.
Authorities swarmed the city’s midtown neighborhood shortly after noon in search of the shooter. Patterson, 24, was captured in Cobb County, just northwest of Atlanta.
Atlanta Police Deputy Chief Charles Hampton Jr. declined to discuss any details of the investigation or a possible motive, saying, “Why he did what he did, all of that is still under investigation.”
Patterson had an appointment at a Northside Medical building and opened fire shortly after arriving in an attack that lasted about two minutes, law enforcement officials said at a news conference Wednesday night. Patterson then went to a Shell gas station and took a pickup truck that had been left running and unattended, authorities said.
A 39-year-old woman was pronounced dead at the scene of the shooting, Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum said.
The Fulton County medical examiner’s office identified her as Amy St. Pierre. St. Pierre worked with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the agency confirmed.
The CDC “is deeply saddened by the unexpected loss of a colleague killed today in the Midtown Atlanta shooting,” spokesperson Benjamin Haynes said in a statement. “Our hearts are with her family, friends, and colleagues as they remember her and grieve this tragic loss.”
The four wounded women — aged 25, 39, 56 and 71 — remained in critical but stable condition Wednesday night, according to Hampton, the deputy chief. Their names were not immediately released.
The shooting comes as cities around the U.S. have been wracked by gun violence and mass shootings in 2023.
In an impassioned speech on the Senate floor Wednesday, Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock said that his two young children were on lockdown in Atlanta after the shooting.
"I feel it in my bones because my own two children were on lockdown this afternoon. I have two small children and their schools are on lockdown responding to this tragedy. They're there, I'm here, hoping and praying they're safe," Warnock, a Democrat, said, adding: "But the truth is none of us are safe."
"The unspoken assumption is that this won’t happen to me, this won’t happen to someone I love," he said. "But with a mass shooting a day, the chances are great."
"As a pastor, I'm praying for those who are affected by this tragedy," Warnock added. "But I hasten to say that thoughts and prayers are not enough ... in fact, it is a contradiction to say that you are thinking and praying and then do nothing, it is to make a mockery of prayer. It is to trivialize faith. We pray not only with our lips, we pray with our legs. We pray by taking action."
"If we refuse to act while our children are dying, and in a moment when no one is safe, then shame on us," Warnock said. "Shame on us if we allow this to happen and we do absolutely nothing."
“There have been so many mass shootings ... that, tragically, we act as if this is routine,” Warnock said. “We behave as if this is normal. It is not normal.”
“I shudder to say it, but the truth is, in a real sense, it’s only a matter of time that this kind of tragedy comes knocking on your door," he added.
Fellow Georgia Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff echoed Warnock's sentiments in a statement: “The level of gun violence in America today is unconscionable and unacceptable, and policymakers at all levels have a responsibility to ensure public safety and implement long-overdue reforms.”