Man Who Killed 3 People in Random Shooting Spree Died in His Jail Cell
Olaolukitan Adon Abel didn't make it to trial.
The 26-year-old Navy veteran accused of carrying out a series of random attacks across DeKalb County that killed three people was found unresponsive in his jail cell on April 21 — just over a week after his arrest. Medical staff tried to save him. He was pronounced dead at 7:17 p.m. The sheriff's office says there's no evidence of foul play. The medical examiner will determine the cause of death. An internal review is underway.
That's all the answers anyone is going to get from him now.
What He Did
The attacks started around 1 a.m. on April 13 and stretched across nearly seven hours. Three people are dead. Authorities believe the targets were random. No motive has been identified.
Prianna Weathers, 31, was first. Shot multiple times outside a Checkers restaurant in Decatur. She made it to a hospital and died there. She leaves behind a 12-year-old son. Her mother told CNN it was a senseless death. She wasn't wrong.
Tony Matthews, 48, was next. He was sleeping on a sidewalk outside a Kroger in Brookhaven when someone shot him multiple times from a passing vehicle. He was hospitalized and held on for days before dying on April 19. Matthews had recently brought his wife and three stepchildren to America from Uganda. He had a 10-month-old child. His family's GoFundMe describes losing him as leaving not just grief but uncertainty — a family new to this country now navigating it without the person who brought them here.
Lauren Bullis, 40, was the last. She was walking her dog near Battle Forest Drive around 6:50 a.m. when she was shot and stabbed. She was pronounced dead at the scene. She was an auditor for the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General. Her department remembered her in a statement as someone who approached her work with integrity and was "a bright spot for so many of the DHS community." Her husband has a GoFundMe up for funeral costs.
Three people on an ordinary Sunday morning. None of them knew each other. None of them had anything to do with whatever was happening in Abel's head that night. Now they are gone.
How He Got Caught
Police tracked Abel through their camera network and a license plate reader that flagged his rented silver Volkswagen Jetta. He was pulled over in a traffic stop on April 15 and taken into custody. He was charged with murder and other offenses.
What We Know About Him
Abel was originally from the United Kingdom. He became a naturalized US citizen in 2022. He was a Navy veteran. His prior criminal record included convictions for sexual battery, battery against a police officer, obstruction, assault with a deadly weapon, and vandalism.
His roommates told the Associated Press that the night before the shootings he got into a heated argument with them over the air conditioning. Whatever that argument stirred up — or didn't — seven hours later strangers were dying.
No motive was ever publicly identified. Authorities said at least some of the attacks appeared to be random. Now the only person who might have explained any of it is gone.
A Heartbreaking Conclusion
The families are left where they started — with grief and no answers. A 12-year-old boy without his mother. A 10-month-old child whose father is gone. A husband whose wife went out to walk the dog and never came back.
The case closes before it ever really opened. And now grieving family members are left with heartache and uncertainty as to why anyone could carry out such a senseless act. Although nothing he could have said would bring them back, any form of closure from the assailant is now completely off the table.
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