ATLANTA – A gunman accused of killing one woman and wounding four others in a mass shooting in Midtown Atlanta early Wednesday afternoon was arrested in Cobb County Wednesday night, the Marietta Daily Journal reported.
Deion Patterson, 24, was captured by officers with the Cobb County Police Department without incident at a condominium complex near Truist Park. A vehicle Patterson allegedly carjacked near the scene of the shootings was recovered earlier inside a parking garage at The Battery Atlanta adjacent to the stadium.
Patterson, who served five years in the U.S. Coast Guard before being discharged in January, is charged with pulling out a handgun and opening fire inside an 11th-floor waiting room at a Northside Hospital facility on West Peachtree Street. He had gone to the medical center for an appointment.
Patterson fled immediately after the shootings and carjacked a vehicle near the intersection of 14th and Williams streets, Atlanta police said. Atlanta police and other law enforcement agencies from the region, unaware that Patterson had left the Midtown area, cordoned off several blocks and enforced a shelter-in-place order for several hours that kept workers at office buildings in the area, guests and employees of nearby hotels and restaurants, and school students from leaving.
The woman who was killed was identified as 39-year-old Amy St. Pierre of Atlanta, an employee of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The other four women was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital. Three underwent surgery and were listed in critical condition, Atlanta’s WANF-TV reported.
Patterson’s mother accompanied him to the appointment Wednesday and was not injured. She then cooperated with police to try to locate her son.
Patterson lived in Jonesboro until recently, according to police. He has an arrest record going back to 2015, when he was charged with possession of marijuana in Henry County.
He was arrested in Clayton in 2017 and charged with driving under the influence, leaving the scene of an accident, and improper lane change. Those charges were dropped later in the year.