Police detail the hourslong manhunt that ended in the Atlanta shooting suspect’s arrest
After a nearly eight-hour, chaotic manhunt, authorities captured the man accused of opening fire in a Midtown Atlanta medical building Wednesday and killing a 38-year-old woman and wounding four others, CNN reports.
The suspected gunman, 24-year-old Deion Patterson, went inside Northside Medical Midtown just before noon and shot the first victim shortly after, Atlanta Police Deputy Chief Charles Hampton said. The suspect used a handgun in the attack, authorities said, before fleeing on foot and hijacking a vehicle nearby.
The slain woman was Amy St. Pierre, the Fulton County medical examiner’s office said. St. Pierre worked for the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the CDC said.
The ages of the women who were wounded in the shooting range from 25 to 71. They were sent to a nearby Atlanta hospital, with three of them arriving in critical condition.
The mass shooting – the latest in a relentless series of gun violence across America – sent Atlanta’s bustling Midtown community into shock as authorities asked residents and patrons visiting the area to shelter in place while police searched for the gunman. It was a “traumatic day,” for the city, its mayor said.
“This was a horrible act of gun violence, but equally horrifying is that we know that this is not unique in our country,” Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens said Wednesday night. “We need more actions (for) the rights of our citizens to go about their lives, to be able to go to a doctor’s office, to a supermarket, to a gas station or to their school without the threat of being gunned down.”
The suspect was captured inside a gated condominium complex in Cobb County, a little more than 10 miles north of where the shooting unfolded, residents told CNN.
