Suspect in deadly Atlanta hospital shooting in custody after search, police say

ATLANTA – Scott Kleber just finished treating a patient in his Midtown medical office when he heard the shots.

“I come out of my office and hear ‘pop, pop, pop, pop.’ People in the office start shouting, ‘Active shooter, active shooter,’ ” Kleber told the Washington Post.

The doctor took cover, then heard a cry for help.

In a matter of minutes, a gunman killed one person and injured four others Wednesday, the latest shooting to disrupt every day life in America. Police arrested the suspect in Cobb County after he fled the scene.

At around 12:08 p.m., Deion Patterson, 24, shot five women between the ages of 25 and 71, in an 11th floor waiting room at the Northside Hospital Midtown medical office, according to Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum. A 39-year-old woman was pronounced dead at the scene.

After leaving the hospital, Patterson stole an unattended pickup truck from a Shell gas station, authorities said. Police said they found the handgun used in the shooting but are still investigating how Patterson obtained the firearm and what led to the attack.

The gunfire in Midtown Atlanta brought fear to one of the busiest commercial areas in the city, featuring the High Museum of Art, Piedmont Park, and bars and shopping on Peachtree Street.

Video of the scene showed dozens of police vehicles and officers outside the facility.

One Atlanta resident said the shooting caused the downtown area to go “bananas,” as police wielding long guns blocked off streets. A colorectal surgeon inside the hospital at the time of the shooting said he remained focused through the yelling and banging to finish a surgery. A law professor worried that his two teenagers were enduring a lockdown.

Hours after the shooting, Sen. Raphael G. Warnock, D-Ga., gave an impassioned speech on the Senate floor, saying his two children were on lockdown in their Atlanta school and something had to change after this latest in a spate of shootings across the country.

“This happened in a medical facility, where people are trying to find healing,” Warnock said, before adding, “It is only a matter of time before this kind of tragedy comes knocking on your door. … Shame on us if we allow this to happen and we do absolutely nothing.”

Three of the victims in the Atlanta shooting remain in critical condition after undergoing medical procedures, a Grady Health System spokesperson told the Washington Post. The fourth patient is in stable condition. Police did not disclose if the victims were patients, employees or a mix.

Atlanta Police Department spokesperson Chata Spikes said at a news conference that Patterson and his mother arrived Wednesday for a medical appointment for himself. The man at some point became angry for reasons that are unclear and started shooting, Spikes said. He was inside the building for two minutes, police later said, before leaving on foot.

Minyone Patterson, the suspect’s mother, was uninjured and is cooperating with police, authorities said. The mother did not respond to a request for comment.

Patterson was discharged from active duty from the Coast Guard in January after nearly five years of service, according to a Coast Guard statement. He last served as an electrician’s mate second class.

Earlier in the day, the department tweeted out four images of surveillance footage showing a man believed to be Patterson wearing a hooded sweatshirt and holding a gun. The man also appeared to be carrying a bag and wearing a mask.

Kleber, 62, said after he initially took cover, he carefully opened a door to look into the waiting room when he heard the cry for help.

He went to put pressure on her facial wound before moving on to another victim.

“My staff member with the wound in her abdomen was worried about her breathing and her future,” he said. “I listened to her lungs. I told her, ‘EMS is coming. Hold tight. People are going to take care of you.’ ”

Kleber said there was blood everywhere in the waiting room. It resembled a warlike scene, he said. Eventually they all got ushered out of the office, down an elevator and out of the building.

A spokesperson with Northside Hospital Midtown did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“This tragedy is affecting all of us, and we ask for patience and prayers at this time,” the hospital tweeted. It later posted that it would be closed Thursday.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters that President Biden was aware of the shooting, and Atlanta mayor Andre Dickens (D) said his office has been in touch with the White House, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp’s office and the state’s congressional delegation.

The shooting in the city comes more than two years after eight people were killed in spa shootings in the Atlanta area. The gunman, Robert Aaron Long, pleaded guilty to murder in Cherokee County, Ga., and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

More than 14,000 people have died of gun violence in the United States this year as of Monday, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

In Georgia, residents are no longer required to have a permit to carry a gun in the state after the measure signed by Kemp (R) went into effect on Jan. 1.

At a news conference Wednesday night, the Atlanta mayor pleaded for more gun control.

”There’s a lot of talk about Second Amendment rights,” Dickens said. “We need more actions about the rights of our citizens to go about their lives to be able to go to a doctor’s office, to a supermarket, to a gas station or to their school without the threat of being gunned down.”