Atlanta shooting suspect Deion Patterson charged in hospital massacre

Suspected Atlanta hospital shooter Deion Patterson was charged with murder and four counts of aggravated assault Thursday, jail records showed.

Patterson, 24, waived his first court appearance, scheduled for Thursday, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

He was apprehended Wednesday evening following a massive almost eight-hour manhunt after allegedly opening fire in a waiting room at Atlanta’s Northside Hospital Medical Midtown shortly after noon on Wednesday.

Witnesses told the newspaper that Patterson began shooting after he arrived too late to be seen for an appointment, which he was accompanied to by his mother, Minyone Patterson.

Minyone, a nurse, told the Associated Press that the Coast Guard veteran was seeking medication for anxiety and depression.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention worker Amy St. Pierre, 39, was slain in the attack, officials said.

Four other women between the ages of 25 and 71, reportedly identified in court documents as Lisa Glynn, Georgette Whitlow, Jazzmin Daniel and Alesha Hollinger were also shot. Three of them were in critical condition, doctors said.

“Those families, those families,” Minyone Patterson said through tears. “They’re hurting because [Veterans Affairs doctors] wouldn’t give my son his damn Ativan. Those families lost their loved ones because he had a mental break because they wouldn’t listen to me.”

Two of the woman were expected to undergo additional surgery Thursday, according to Robert Jansen, Grady Memorial Hospital’s chief medical officer. The third had stabilized and was expected to be removed from intensive care.

“This is unfortunately a fairly routine thing after these types of injuries,” Jansen said, referring to the additional surgeries. “You can’t do everything during the first operation so going back is scheduled event.”

The doctor told Atlanta News First that the two victims he spoke to were “traumatized.”

“The impact on staff is something you can’t imagine,” Jansen said. “Seeing shooting victims is almost a daily occurrence. This happening in a hospital setting, it resonates more.”

Patterson has had multiple run-ins with the law in past years, including 2017 arrests for driving under the influence, leaving the scene of a crash and driving without insurance that were thrown out, The Journal-Constitution reported.

Officials said he was discharged from the Coast Guard in January, but it was unclear why.

“Our deepest sympathies are with the victims and their families,” the Coast Guard said in a statement. “The Coast Guard Investigative Service is working closely with the Atlanta Police Department and local authorities in the investigation.”

Sen. Raphael Warnock, a Georgia Democrat, said his two children were locked down at school in the aftermath of the shooting.

Warnock appeared on MSNBC Thursday to rail against mass shootings in the US, of which there have been 192 so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which defines them as incidents where at least four people are injured or killed.

“We have to stand up; this is a defining moment,” Warnock said, as he called on lawmakers to enact meaningful gun reform.

“None of us is safe. It doesn’t matter where we are: bars, restaurants, in our houses of worship. The good news is that there is growing consensus in the country that we have to do something.”

A Fox News poll released last week found that 87% of American voters support criminal background checks on all gun buyers and 81% want the legal age to buy a gun to be raised to 21.

Eighty percent of those polled said mental health checks on gun buyers should be required and cops should be able to take away guns from unstable people.