2 women killed, homeless man critically injured in Georgia shooting spree
Two women were killed and a man was critically injured in a spree shooting across DeKalb County and Brookhaven, Georgia, according to officials. The wounded man was part of the area’s unhoused community and appears to have been targeted at random.
The first incident was reported just after 12:50 a.m. Monday in unincorporated DeKalb County, east of Atlanta, where officers responding to a Checkers restaurant on Wesley Chapel Road found an adult woman with multiple gunshot wounds, DeKalb County Police Chief Greg Padrick said at a briefing. She was taken to a hospital, where she later died.
Just before 2 a.m., Brookhaven police began receiving 911 calls about another shooting at Cherokee Plaza on Peachtree Road in Brookhaven, a city just northeast of Atlanta.
Brookhaven police Chief Brandon Gurley said officers used technology that streamed the 911 audio directly to patrol cars, allowing them to begin responding before dispatch and reach the scene within about three minutes.
There, officers found a 49-year-old man on the sidewalk outside a Kroger who had been shot multiple times. Investigators believe the man, who was part of the area’s unhoused community, had been asleep when the suspect pulled into the shopping center and opened fire from his vehicle.
The victim was taken to a hospital and remains in “very” critical condition, according to Gurley.
Gurley said police have found no connection between the suspect and the Brookhaven victim and believe the attack was random.
Investigators used license plate reader data and other camera footage to identify the suspect vehicle, determine it was a rental car and track its movements.
At about 6:50 a.m., officers responding to Battle Forest Drive found another adult woman who had been shot and stabbed in unincorporated DeKalb. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
Investigators determined the two DeKalb County killings were connected and began coordinating with Brookhaven police. The suspect vehicle, described as a silver Volkswagen Jetta, was seen leaving the third crime scene.
Authorities tracked the vehicle as it traveled south from the Atlanta area into Troup County, near the Alabama state line. Brookhaven police said they worked with the Georgia Department of Public Safety and the Troup County Sheriff’s Office, which located the car and carried out a felony traffic stop.
The suspect, identified by police as 26-year-old Olaolukitan Adon Abel of Atlanta, was taken into custody without incident and returned to Brookhaven. Gurley said he has been charged there with aggravated assault and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony.
Police said the investigation remains active as detectives work to establish the full sequence of events and a motive. Padrick said there is no ongoing threat related to the suspect because he is in custody.
“It is apparent to us that this was a completely random attack on a member of our unhoused community,” Brookhaven police said. “The pattern we saw in unincorporated DeKalb and in Brookhaven certainly shows a pattern that, I believe, would have been repeated.”
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