DHS employee killed in Atlanta-area shooting spree, suspect charged with murder

A Department of Homeland Security employee was killed while walking her dog in unincorporated DeKalb County after police say a gunman moved through metro Atlanta in a connected spree that began before dawn and left two women dead and a homeless man critically wounded.

DHS identified the victim as Lauren Bullis, 40, who served in the department’s Office of Inspector General as an auditor in the Office of Audits and a team leader in the Office of Innovation. She was attacked on Battle Forest Drive, just north of I-285, around 6:50 a.m. Monday, after a separate shooting hours earlier in Brookhaven and another near a Checkers restaurant on Wesley Chapel Road. DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin called the shootings "an act of pure evil" and said the department had been devastated by the violence.

Police said the spree began around 1 a.m. Monday, when a woman was found with multiple gunshot wounds near the Checkers on Wesley Chapel Road and later died at a hospital. Hours later, a 49-year-old homeless man was shot multiple times outside a Kroger in Brookhaven and remained in critical condition. By the time Bullis was killed, investigators said the attacks had already formed a pattern across separate scenes in Atlanta, DeKalb County and Brookhaven.

Authorities identified the suspect as Olaolukitan Adon Abel, 26, of Atlanta. They said a rented silver Volkswagen Jetta helped lead investigators to him, and officers stopped him during a traffic stop in Troup County. DHS said Abel was born in the United Kingdom and naturalized in 2022. The department also said he had prior convictions for sexual battery, battery against a police officer, obstruction, assault with a deadly weapon and vandalism.

Abel was charged with two counts of malice murder, aggravated assault and firearms offenses, and he waived his initial court appearance Tuesday. Police said the sequence of attacks suggested the danger was not contained to a single block or a single victim. If officers had not intercepted him on the road in Troup County, investigators said, more assaults could have followed.