Atlanta.- A gunman who opened fire at a Midtown Atlanta medical office building Wednesday, killing one person and injuring four others, was apprehended after a manhunt that lasted several hours, authorities said.
The perpetrator, identified as 24-year-old Deion Patterson, stole a vehicle after the shooting and fled on foot, the Atlanta Police Department said.
He left the area armed, authorities said. Dozens of officers from various agencies were involved in the search for Patterson, who was taken into custody in a Cobb County neighborhood eight hours after the shooting.
“This was a horrific act of gun violence,” Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens said during a press conference Wednesday night.
“Though it’s just as horrifying to know that he’s not the only one from our country.”
Atlanta police chief Darin Schierbaum said at a news conference earlier that officers went to 1100 West Peachtree Street in Midtown Atlanta just after noon when the gunman fired a gunshot into the courtroom. on the eleventh floor of a Northside Hospital office, killing a 39-year-old woman and injuring four others.
All the victims are women, Chief Schierbaum said.
Police have not provided details on a possible motive for the shooting, which occurred as the country continues to suffer from relentless gun violence.
Patterson was in the medical office building with his mother, authorities said.
In a brief phone interview Wednesday night before her brother was taken into custody, Whitney Code, Patterson’s sister, said her brother “has not been mentally stable” since leaving the Coast Guard earlier this year. .
The United States Coast Guard said in a statement that Patterson joined that division of the army in July 2018, and the last position he held was as an electrician second class and was fired in January.
Code said that recently, Patterson had trouble doing basic things like eating and getting out of bed and that he was in the office building on Wednesday to “ask for help.”
