Atlanta: Police on Wednesday evening arrested a man accused of opening fire inside the waiting room of an Atlanta medical practice, killing one woman and wounding four others earlier in the day.
Authorities had swarmed the city’s bustling midtown neighborhood shortly after noon in search of the suspect, who fled after the shooting. Police said in a statement that the gunman, who they identified as 24-year-old Deion Patterson, was captured in Cobb County, just northwest of Atlanta.
Authorities said Patterson shot five women on the 11th floor of a Northside Medical building, which is in a commercial area filled with office towers and high-rise apartments. News of the shooting prompted workers and lunch goers to shelter in place for hours.
Patterson had an appointment at the medical practice and shortly after arriving shot the first victim, law enforcement officials said at a news conference Wednesday night. The shooting lasted approximately two minutes before Patterson left the building and went to a Shell gas station and took a pickup truck that had been left running and unattended, authorities said.
Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum said 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.
