May 4 (UPI) — The suspect in the deadly Wednesday Atlanta medical center shooting is expected to make his first appearance in court on Thursday after he was taken into custody after evading police for eight hours.
Deion Duwane Patterson, 24, was charged with murder and four counts of aggravated assault as he is accused of shooting five women at Northside Hospital with a semi-automatic handgun, Wednesday, killing Amy St. Pierre, 39, who worked at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The four women injured in the shooting were identified as Lisa Glynn, Georgette Whitlow, Jazzmin Daniel and Alesha Hollinger. Authorities said gunshots hit Glynn and Daniel in the abdomen, Whitlow in the arm and Hollinger in the face.
The U.S. Coast Guard discharged Patterson from active duty in January, according to authorities. While Atlanta Deputy Police Chief Charles Hampton confirmed Patterson was initially at Northside Hospital for an appointment, he declined to elaborate or answer questions swirling about the suspect’s mental health status.
Atlanta Police said Patterson stayed in the hospital for roughly two minutes before escaping on foot.
Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens said in a statement released Thursday that the case is still under investigation but multiple shootings like what happened there are too common in the United States.
“We need to do more,” Dickens said. “We need national action to change the way we treat mental health. And we need action that keeps guns out of the hands of people who should not have them. We cannot accept mass shootings as normal in our country.
“We know it does not have to be this way. Other nations have challenges with mental health, but they don’t have this level of gun violence that we do in America.”
