Man accused of killing 3 in Atlanta-area attacks dies in jail

A man accused of killing three people during a shooting spree in several Atlanta suburbs last week -- including a Department of Homeland Security employee -- has died in custody, officials said Tuesday.

According to the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office, Olaolukitan Adon Abel, 26, was found unresponsive in his jail cell just after 6:48 p.m. ET, WSB-TV reported.

According to the sheriff’s office, detention staff members at the DeKalb County Jail alerted medical personnel and began life-saving procedures, but Abel was pronounced dead at 7:17 p.m. ET., the television station reported.

“There is no indication of criminal activity or foul play,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement.

An internal investigation has been opened to determine the circumstances of Abel’s death.

Abel is originally from the United Kingdom and became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2022.

WSB reported that Abel allegedly paid a homeless man to buy him a gun. He then used the weapon to fatally shoot three people at three different locations across the Atlanta area on April 13.

He was accused of shooting Prianna Weathers, 31; Tony Matthews, 48; and Lauren Bullis, 40.

Weathers, a mother to a preteen, and Bullis, who worked for the DHS, both died from their injuries shortly after they were shot, CNN reported. Matthews, a father, was hospitalized for six days but died on April 19, according to the news outlet.

Weathers was shot around 1 a.m. on April 13 outside a Checkers restaurant along Wesley Chapel Road near Decatur in DeKalb County, WSB reported.

An hour later, police said Abel drove to the northern Atlanta suburb of Brookhaven and shot Matthews, who was sleeping on the ground outside of a Kroger’s supermarket in a shopping plaza, according to the television station.

Between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m. ET, police said that Abel shot and stabbed Bullis while she was walking her dog in Panthersville, an unincorporated area south of Decatur, CNN reported.