ATLANTA (AP) — Police arrested a man accused of opening fire inside the waiting room of an Atlanta medical practice Wednesday, killing one woman and wounding four. Workers and others in a bustling commercial district took shelter for hours during the manhunt.
Authorities swarmed the city’s midtown neighborhood shortly after noon in search of the shooter. Police said in a statement that the suspect, whom they identified as 24-year-old Deion Patterson, was captured in Cobb County, just northwest of Atlanta.
Atlanta Police Deputy Chief Charles Hampton Jr. declined to discuss any details of the investigation or a possible motive, saying, “Why he did what he did, all of that is still under investigation.”
Patterson had an appointment at a Northside Medical building and opened fire shortly after arriving in an attack that lasted about two minutes, law enforcement officials said at a news conference Wednesday night. Patterson then went to a Shell gas station and took a pickup truck that had been left running and unattended, authorities said.
News of the shooting prompted workers and lunchgoers in the neighborhood, which is filled with office towers and high-rise apartments, to shelter in place for hours.