Roommates of man accused of killing 2 say a dispute preceded the Atlanta-area attacks

DECATUR, Ga. (AP) — A U.S. Navy veteran accused of killing two people and critically injuring another in a series of attacks in the Atlanta area had, shortly before the shootings, stormed out of his communal house after getting into an intense argument over the air conditioning in the home, according to his roommates.

Authorities have not offered a potential motive for Monday morning’s attacks. Among the victims was an auditor for the Department of Homeland Security who was walking her dog near the suspect’s home.

The suspect in the shootings, Olaolukitan Adon Abel, a 26-year-old U.K. native, is charged in state court in DeKalb County with two counts of malice murder, aggravated assault and firearms counts. He also is facing a federal firearms charge, along with another man who is accused of buying the gun used in the shootings for him, prosecutors announced Friday.

Adon Abel lived with six others in separate units of a home listed on PadSplit, a platform offering low-cost shared housing. He was granted U.S. citizenship in 2022 while serving in the Navy and stationed in the San Diego area.

Long-running issues inside a communal home

Three roommates told The Associated Press that Adon Abel and a male roommate were screaming at each other late Sunday night over how cold Adon Abel kept the house in Panthersville, a suburb southeast of Atlanta.

“He (kept) the house freezing,” roommate Angela Britton said Friday. “It’s not the first time they got into it about the AC. But that time was a real big argument.”

Another roommate, Lakisha Mckinzie, said the fight scared her so much that she called her mother before bed and asked her to pray for her and her roommates’ safety, telling her there had been a lot of “chaos and tension” in the home.

Mckinzie said she had been afraid of Adon Abel ever since he inappropriately touched her last month after asking her on a date. Mckinzie said he frequently knocked on her door late at night, but she never answered. She said she complained to her landlord multiple times, but no action was taken. PadSplit did not respond to a request for comment about whether it knew about Adon Abel’s alleged behavior in the home.

After the argument, the roommates said Adon Abel packed up a large duffel bag and drove off shortly after midnight Monday morning.

Around 12:50 a.m., and about 5 miles (8 kilometers) away, 31-year-old Prianna Weathers was fatally shot outside a Decatur-area fast food restaurant, investigators said.

Then, around 2 a.m., a 49-year-old homeless man was shot multiple times while sleeping outside a grocery store in Brookhaven, about 12 miles (19 kilometers) northwest of the first attack, Brookhaven Police Chief Brandon Gurley said. The man, whose name hasn’t been released, remains hospitalized in stable but critical condition, authorities said Thursday.

DHS worker Lauren Bullis, who was out walking her dog a few hundred feet from Adon Abel’s home, was found around 7 a.m. with gunshot and stab wounds.

Authorities have linked Adon Abel to all three attacks, though it is unclear whether he knew any of the victims — police have said they believe at least one victim was targeted at random.

Georgia State Patrol troopers stopped Adon Abel’s car around 11 a.m. Monday in Troup County, not far from the Georgia-Alabama border. Inside the vehicle, investigators said they found ammunition and shell casings matching those at the scene of Weathers’ killing. Police found the gun and shell casings on the ground near Bullis, Hertzberg said.

Federal charges have now been filed

Adon Abel is now also facing prosecution in federal court for illegally possessing a firearm, officials announced Friday.

He was charged with a firearms violation along with a 35-year-old homeless man, Damon Marquis Yarns. U.S. Attorney Theodore S. Hertzberg, the top federal prosecutor for northern Georgia, said Yarns acknowledged buying the gun used in the shootings for Adon Abel and falsely stating on a federal form that he was the owner.

Adon Abel is accused of illegally possessing the gun as a person previously convicted of a felony.

Monday’s crimes led Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin to issue a statement raising concerns that Adon Abel was granted U.S. citizenship when Joe Biden was president. Mullin has catalogued a litany of the defendant’s previous alleged crimes, but it is unclear whether any of them happened before he became a citizen.

Adon Abel pleaded guilty in October 2024 in San Diego County, California, to charges of assault with a deadly weapon and criminal vandalism over what authorities there said was an attack on two police officers and another person, according to California court records.

Online court records show that someone listed with a similar name and the same birth date pleaded guilty last June in Chatham County, Georgia, to four misdemeanor counts of sexual battery.

Yarns is accused of buying the 9 mm pistol used in the shootings at a federally licensed firearms dealer in Atlanta on Feb. 20. Hertzberg said that a special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives interviewed Yarns on Thursday, and Yarns said he had purchased the gun for a Nigerian or British man he knew only as “Abdul or Obie,” then identified Adon Abel from a photo.

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Hanna reported from Topeka, Kansas.