Man accused of killing 3 people in Atlanta-area attacks dies in custody

By Karina Tsui, CNN

(CNN) — A man accused of killing three people, including a Department of Homeland Security employee, in a shooting spree across several Atlanta suburbs last week died in custody, authorities said Tuesday.

Olaolukitan Adon Abel, 26, was found unresponsive in his jail cell at around 6:48 p.m. Tuesday. Detention staff tried to save him, but he was pronounced dead about half an hour later, Dekalb County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.

“There is no indication of criminal activity or foul play,” the statement read, adding that the official cause of death will be determined by the medical examiner’s office. An internal review has been initiated to examine the circumstances of his death, in accordance with agency policy.

Adon Abel, a native of the United Kingdom granted US citizenship in 2022, was suspected of shooting 31-year-old Prianna Weathers, 48-year-old Tony Matthews, and 40-year-old Lauren Bullis, within hours on April 13, becoming one of the latest immigration cases thrust into the national spotlight by the Trump administration.

Weathers, a mother to a preteen, and Bullis, the DHS employee, died from their injuries shortly after being shot. Matthews, a father with a growing family, was hospitalized for six days until he died on April 19.

Police said Weathers, the first victim, was fatally injured with multiple gunshot wounds near a restaurant in the Decatur area around 1 a.m. on April 13.

About an hour later in Brookhaven, another Atlanta suburb north of Decatur, Matthews was shot multiple times outside of a grocery store. Police previously said Matthews was unhoused, but his family said he wasn’t, clarifying he didn’t have his ID when he was found.

Hours later, before 7 a.m., Bullis was shot and stabbed while walking her dog in Panthersville – an unincorporated community south of Decatur. A dedicated DHS employee and “consummate professional,” Bullis was “committed to public service,” read her obituary.

Suspect faced multiple charges

Authorities said they suspected Adon Abel based on surveillance footage and license plate readers. He was taken into custody on April 13, the same day as the shootings, during a traffic stop in Troup County, which borders Alabama and was charged with two counts of malice murder aggravated assault and a firearms count.

After Matthews’ death, police said they would seek another charge of malice murder.

Adon Abel was also facing federal firearms charges in connection to the purchase of a 9 mm handgun allegedly found at the scene where Bullis was killed, according to the Justice Department.

Tracing analysis connected the firearm found to Damon Marquis Yarns, a homeless man who allegedly told authorities he purchased a firearm for a man he identified in a photo array as Adon Abel, the Justice Department said. Yarns also faces federal firearms charges.

During a search of Adon Abel’s vehicle, Georgia State Patrol troopers found a box of 9 mm ammunition and shell casings matching the brand of ammunition found at the scene where Bullis was killed, the department added.

Authorities have said they believe at least one of the victims, the man who was wounded, was targeted at random. They said they were still looking into whether the other two victims were also picked randomly.

Adon Abel had a criminal record that included a sexual battery conviction, according to Homeland Secretary Markwayne Mullin, though he didn’t say which year he was convicted.

Online court records show that someone listed as Adon Olaolukitan, who has the same birth date as Adon Abel, pleaded guilty last June in Chatham County, Georgia, to four misdemeanor counts of sexual battery.

Mullin said since President Donald Trump took office, US Citizenship and Immigration Services, which DHS oversees, has worked to ensure that people with criminal histories don’t attain citizenship. But the US has long barred people convicted of most violent felonies from becoming citizens, and it wasn’t immediately clear if Adon Abel — or Adon Olaolukitan, if it’s the same person — had a criminal record that predated him becoming a citizen in 2022.

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.