Atlanta (CNN) An eight-hour search that ravaged a major U.S. city with terror and chaos ended when a dog barked at a suburban condo. A US Coast Guard veteran has been arrested on suspicion of shooting a woman and injuring four others in a medical waiting room. In the bustling center of Atlanta, officials said.
Suspect Dion Duwayne Patterson, 24, was armed when he was arrested Wednesday night, Cobb County Police Chief Stuart Vanhouser said Thursday.
“I don’t know what his intentions were. Was he in an ambush? Did he do something desperate to escape? Who knows,” Suburb said. police chief said.
According to Fulton County Jail records, Patterson faces one count of murder and four counts of aggravated assault. He waived his first appearance in court, which had been set for Thursday morning, the prison warden said.
Now, in a community mourning the death of a beloved health worker in a place traditionally considered safe, the suspect’s mother is apologizing to the families of those killed and injured. I have a message for those who have been asked to help those with mental illness: ‘Don’t ignore them.
“I’m trying to defend my son,” Mignone Patterson said, according to CNN affiliate WANF.
Mother of 2 died
Amy St. Pierre has died in the Atlanta shooting, the coroner has confirmed.
A mass shooting claimed the life of 38-year-old Amy St. Pierre, who worked for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“Our hearts are with her family, friends and colleagues as they remember her and mourn this tragic loss,” said CDC spokesperson Benjamin Haynes.
In a statement, St-Pierre’s family said she was a loving wife and mother of two children.
“Amy was wonderful, kind, open-minded, and truly ‘the best of the best,'” they said.
“A graduate of Emory Honors and an MBA from Georgia, Amy traveled the world with curiosity and courage. It was driven by compassion,” her family said. She said, “Amy was always selfless. She wanted more for others, but she didn’t do it for herself. She generously supported worthy causes.” and the social conscience of our family.”
The family of Amy St.Pierre, who died in the Midtown Atlanta shooting, said they were proud and happy for her.
The attack was one of 192 mass shootings in the United States this year, with at least four people shot, not including the shooter, according to the Gun Violence Archive.
“This sort of thing happens every day. It’s going to affect you one way or another,” said Neil Cohen, a longtime friend of the murder victim. It has directly impacted my life, and I am still trying to process the loss of my friend Amy.”
The four surviving gunshot victims remained hospitalized at Grady Memorial Hospital, Atlanta’s only Level 1 trauma center.
As of Friday, two of the victims are still in critical condition in the ICU, said Robert Jansen, chief medical officer of the Grady Health System. A third victim was transferred from her ICU to the surgical floor, and a fourth will be released today.
Jansen said two patients remaining in the ICU underwent successful surgery yesterday. “We are very happy with their progress,” he said.
“There will be some adjustments,” said Jansen, who is discharged today, but is “doing very well.”
“The trauma from a gunshot wound is not just physical, it’s psychological and emotional, and I don’t think you can underestimate the impact,” the doctor said. I mean, when something like this suddenly happens at work, it’s hard to get out of your normal life, and you have to deal with it, and post-traumatic stress is It’s real and it affects them all.”
On Thursday, Janssen said the patients were “very grateful for the support and care they received” but “they are traumatized.”
“They know this is a terrifying event, and the fact that they were in a medical facility only makes things worse.”
How the deadly rampage and manhunt unfolded
Dion Patterson was being treated at the Northside Medical Midtown facility around noon Wednesday because he was dissatisfied with the treatment he was receiving from the Department of Veterans Affairs, according to a senior Atlanta police official, his mother said. told investigators.
But Patterson got angry when doctors didn’t give him the anti-anxiety drug Ativan, his mother told CNN affiliate WSB. a source told CNN.
Atlanta police released surveillance footage Wednesday afternoon, tweeting that “suspect is still on the run.”
Officers were summoned to the medical facility at 12:08 p.m. ET, according to Atlanta Police Chief Darin Sherbaum.
One of the 911 calls to the shooting was cleared by police on Friday. The caller is heard telling the dispatcher that he heard several large shots in the hallway of the floor he was on. She says the office doctor saw someone in the elevator on the 11th floor of the medical facility.
Soon, an official shelter-in-place order rang out across the cell phone network, shutting down an apartment building a block away.
From there, resident Annie Eaveson could see “medical professionals congregating in offices” at the medical building on West Peachtree Street.
“I saw two people being taken out on stretchers,” she told CNN. “Waves of armored officers almost took turns coming inside.”
But the shooter was nowhere to be found. Atlanta Police Department Deputy Chief of Criminal Investigations Charles Hampton said Patterson fled the building on foot and ran to a nearby gas station.
There, a “camera network system” captured footage of the suspect stealing a pickup truck that had been left unattended, Hampton said. The truck’s tag was then sent to his license plate reader system.
Around 12:30 p.m., a license plate reader spotted the truck in neighboring Cobb County, about 15 miles from the site of the attack, Hampton said.
Cobb County officials were immediately notified and officers rushed to search the area, police said.
With miles of schools and businesses on lockdown, police relied on camera technology systems and information from Patterson’s family to keep the area under wraps.
Atlanta police said in a news release on Friday that they were still investigating the 911 calls made regarding the shooting and that they would make further calls after the investigation.
Suspect arrested at private apartment
Law enforcement officers arrive near the scene of a shooter in midtown Atlanta, Wednesday, May 3, 2023.
As the search continued into the evening, Cobb County law enforcement received a series of calls reporting possible sightings of the suspect, creating a “chaotic scene” as officers responded to several false alarms, Van Hooser said. said.
“These are very complex investigations and the information comes in very quickly,” the chief said Wednesday night. I often try to rush in. Each one looks like a suspect.”
When Christy Colwell heard a dog barking at the Waterford Place complex where she lives, she feared the suspect was hiding in the pool area, which includes a gazebo.
She answered the noise call and informed the police officers who were already there.
“He just started running – the policeman – and said, ‘Get on the grass! ‘Suddenly about 30 police cars flew by.’
An operator at the police crime center also alerted officers to a 911 call likely involving a suspect, the chief said.
“We prioritized radio calls,” he said, adding that both undercover agents and uniformed officers were dispatched to the scene.
“I was the one that the undercover agent first saw and confronted,” Van Hooser said. “Then uniformed officers came in and took him into custody without incident.
24-year-old Dion Patterson was held in a Fulton County Jail and charged with murder and four counts of aggravated assault, according to prison records.
VanHoozer credits recent advances in police tracking technology to the successful capture.
“The combination of people and technology has definitely saved my life,” Banhouser said Thursday. “When the kids got on the school bus this morning, I had a completely different feeling than if I hadn’t caught this person last night.”
Suspect’s mother apologizes and warns
The suspect served in the Coast Guard from 2018 until he was discharged in January, the military branch said. CNN reached out to his VA for comment.
According to WANF, Patterson “was always a protector. He never hurt anyone,” said his mother, Mignonne Patterson. “And even when needed, he was still trying to help others. That’s what he always did.”
But the young man also suffered, she said in an apology after the shooting.
“First and foremost, I would like to offer my sincerest apologies to the families of those who died of their injuries,” Mignone Patterson said, according to WANF. is.”
“And when someone says they need help, or they notice that they’re behaving abnormally, they need help,” she said. Please help me, don’t ignore them, they need help.”
“The impact is … unimaginable.”
The influx of victims arriving at Grady Memorial Hospital is not uncommon, the chief medical officer said.
“Unfortunately in this day and age, seeing shooting victims here happens almost every day, and there are multiple shooting victims coming every day. It resonates more.” Jansen said.
“The impact of this on our staff is unimaginable…and it causes anxiety,” he said. We have support staff to help them through this.”
Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens Convicted of ‘Horrible gun violence’
“Equally frightening is knowing that this is not just about our country,” said the Democrat.
“I know it doesn’t have to be that way. Other countries have mental health issues, but they don’t have the level of gun violence that we have in America. It’s guns,” the mayor said.
“While we respect the rights conveyed by the Second Amendment, more action is needed to protect the right of citizens to live their lives – to go to hospitals, supermarkets, gas stations and schools. The threat of being shot down,” Dickens said.
On Friday night, the mayor called for changes to gun laws following the shooting.
“This can’t be the new normal,” Dickens told CNN’s Pamela Brown.
Dickens says measures such as universal background checks should become normal practice and prevent convicted felons from having easy access to firearms.
“This week, this tragedy came to our city, and as we know it, it was Nashville, Louisville. There are nearly 200 mass shootings in this country, but… It’s only May,” said Dickens.
“We need to see how mental health and access to guns are linked and leading to mass shootings across the country,” he added.
CNN’s Rebekah Riess, Ben Tinker, Jillian Sykes, Haley Britzky, Christina Maxouris, Dakin Andone, Nick Valencia, Amanda Jackson, Brenda Goodman, Justin Gamble Tina Burnside, and Zoe Sottile contributed to this report.