ATLANTA (NewsNation) — Authorities have captured the man who they say opened fire inside an Atlanta medical facility Wednesday, killing one person and injuring four others.
The Atlanta Police Department first alerted the public Wednesday morning to an active shooter situation at Northside Hospital Midtown in the area of West Peachtree Street.
The suspect, 24-year-old Deion Patterson, was captured hours later after a manhunt that involved multiple police agencies and spanned two counties.
Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum said at a news conference Wednesday night it was through the work of a “network of officers” that Patterson was caught.
He was apprehended in Cobb County, just outside the city of Atlanta.
Chief Stuart VanHoozer of Cobb County Police Department said technology “played a huge role” in the arrest. Police tracked Patterson to Cobb County using license plate reader technology after he stole a pickup truck immediately after the shooting.
VanHoozer credited the work of the community and coordination between agencies.
“You can’t really thank people without missing someone. Hats off to everybody who was involved in this,” VanHoozer said at the news conference. “The communication between agencies in metro Atlanta has probably never been this good.”
A 39-year-old woman was pronounced dead at the scene of the shooting. The Fulton County medical examiner’s office identified her as Amy St. Pierre.
The four wounded victims were also women, aged 25, 39, 56 and 71. Atlanta Police Deputy Chief Charles Hampton Jr. said they remained in critical but stable condition Wednesday night. Their names were not immediately released.
“This was a serious act of gun violence,” Mayor Andre Dickens said at the news conference Wednesday night.
He called for universal background checks, better red-flag laws and the closure of loopholes.
In a statement to NewsNation, the Coast Guard confirmed Patterson is a veteran who entered the service in July 2018 and was discharged in January 2023. Their investigative service is working with the Atlanta Police Department and other local authorities, the Coast Guard said.
“The Coast Guard is aware of the tragic incident in Atlanta allegedly involving Mr. Deion Patterson,” the statement said. “Our deepest sympathies are with the victims and their families.”
Schierbaum said the shooting occurred in the hospital’s waiting room. After he left the building, Patterson carjacked a vehicle a short distance away and used it to flee the scene. That vehicle was recovered afterward, Schierbaum said.
Police confirmed Patterson was at the facility for an appointment but would not provide further details. A motive remains unclear.
Residents in the area of West Peachtree Street between 12th and 13th Street were advised to shelter in place, but the order was lifted at 3:06 p.m.
Northside Hospital said it is cooperating with law enforcement in its investigation.
“This tragedy is affecting all of us, and we ask for patience and prayers at this time,” the hospital wrote on Twitter.
Dozens of police and fire vehicles gathered along West Peachtree Street following the shooting, the Associated Press reported, as well as officers with assault-style rifles, helmets and vests.
Annie Eavenson, who lives across the street from the hospital, said at first, seeing and hearing the police activity outside her window was very confusing.
The shooting happened in the “heart of midtown,” Eavenson said, a place that typically has a lot of foot and regular traffic, especially around lunchtime. On Wednesday it was a different scene, with helicopters hovering over the area, she said.
“It’s definitely very scary,” she said. “Northside Medical, obviously, has a ton of medical professionals — you can see some of those professionals, I don’t know if they were in offices, but I could see them all huddled together in certain areas through the windows.”
Several Atlanta Public Schools operated on an exterior lockdown for the day “out of an abundance of caution,” the district said on social media.
Patterson’s mother, Minyone Patterson, told The Associated Press by phone that her son had “some mental instability going on” from medication he received from the Veterans Affairs health system that he began taking on Friday.
She said her son had wanted Ativan to deal with anxiety and depression but that the VA wouldn’t give it to him because they said it would be “too addicting.” She’s a nurse and said she told them he would only have taken the proper dosage “because he listened to me in every way.”
“Those families, those families,” she said, starting to sob. “They’re hurting because they wouldn’t give my son his damn Ativan. Those families lost their loved ones because he had a mental break because they wouldn’t listen to me.”
She ended the call without saying what medication her son had been taking.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.