Police have arrested a person suspected of capturing 5 folks — considered one of whom died — at an Atlanta hospital on Wednesday, authorities within the southern US metropolis mentioned.
One individual was killed and 4 have been injured when Deion Patterson allegedly opened fireplace in a hospital ready room simply after noon (1700 GMT). Patterson then allegedly stole a truck that had been left operating at a close-by fuel station and fled.
A manhunt went into the night time earlier than Patterson was apprehended exterior the town in neighbouring Cobb County.
“Regulation enforcement have taken the suspect into custody,” Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens mentioned at a information convention Wednesday night.
“He will likely be charged and stand trial for his crimes.”
Patterson was detained “with out incident,” mentioned Cobb County police chief Stuart VanHoozer.
The victims, all girls, have been aged between 25 and 71, police mentioned at an earlier information convention.
Police chief Darin Schierbaum mentioned native authorities acquired help within the seek for Patterson from a number of businesses, together with the FBI and the Secret Service.
Patterson had been accompanied within the hospital ready room by his mom, who was not injured within the capturing, Schierbaum mentioned. CNN reported he grew to become “enraged” throughout a go to earlier than opening fireplace.
It was too quickly to know if any of the victims have been focused particularly, Schierbaum added. The suspect’s household cooperated with the investigation, he mentioned.
As police have been scouring the higher Atlanta space, they printed a photograph of Patterson, carrying darkish pants, a hood over his head and a white surgical masks, wielding a handgun.
Tv footage confirmed police and different regulation enforcement officers deployed on the scene. A number of ambulances have been additionally current.
The capturing despatched a number of colleges close to the hospital into momentary lockdown.
“Out of an abundance of warning, we’ve dispatched officers at each faculty for immediately’s dismissal,” Atlanta Public Colleges introduced on its web site as soon as the lockdowns have been lifted.
The White Home mentioned President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris had been briefed on the capturing.
Spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre mentioned the president’s arms have been tied on “extra steps to take care of the violence that we’re seeing in our communities or colleges or church buildings.”
“American folks ought to be capable of be happy to enter a grocery retailer, to go to church,” Jean-Pierre mentioned.
There have been greater than 190 mass shootings — outlined as 4 or extra folks wounded or killed — up to now this yr in the US, in response to the Gun Violence Archive.
With extra firearms than inhabitants, the US has the very best charge of gun-related deaths of any developed nation: 49,000 in 2021, up from 45,000 the yr earlier than.
