Own And then you got out there with a camera.
You've been speaking with a lotf
people both on the scene out th,
but also hearing from a lot of sources
all evening long giving you some
insight into what may have taken place.
Yeah, at the beginning of this,
when I first got down to Midtow,
I parked and that's literally when the
Fulton County SWAT team and APD SWAT team.
Actually trapped me on 15th St.
I couldn't leave so I just kind of got
out and followed them as they started
looking around that area where y
believed this suspect was Dion Patterson.
Again, that was a shortly after about
12:00 o'clock and now we have been able
to confirm he got out of town by 12:30.
What we're trying to figure out
is exactly what led this suspec,
Deon Patterson, to open fire ine
the 11th floor here behind me.
But right now, again,
there's a lot of questions about
what triggered this 24 year old
and where he is at this time.
I think the biggest question a lot of
people have that I'm seeing on social
media people are asking us here is how
in the world did he carry this ?
Get down 11th floors.
Allegedly carjack a vehicle,
get over to Heritage Court,
get out of that vehicle and
then almost vanish.
There's so many cameras around metro Atlanta,
we see it all the time with investigations.
You almost wonder if he is just
hunkered down somewhere over in
that area knowing that they are
hot on his trail again right no.
A $10,000 reward out for this m.
Cody, you've covered a lot of ce
in your career and this is one
of those rare occurrences where
someone commits murder like thi.
You know, with with five shot,
one dead, 3 critical, all women,
and is able to get away.
It's it's an instance you
simply don't hear much of.
Know the other thing too that
is interesting here is from
all accounts I've talked to from the nurse
that was in the back that heard the gunshots,
a nurse that talked to me after being
interviewed by a PD who actually talked
to the suspect's mom for a brief second
is that it did not appear that he just
came up and immediately start opening
five that he came here to do th.
They said he came here with his mom for some
reason they believe maybe a mental health.
Situation and that at some point things
escalated and that is when shots were fired.
As that one nurse told me,
it was two initial shots pop, p.
It made her stop what she was
doing and then she came kind of
realizing all of a sudden wait,
were those gunshots and then she heard
or just a rapid fire pop, pop, .
And that's when they realized there'd
been a shooting and they annound
active shooter on that 11th flor
and their protocols went into p.
So it is rare.
It's not as if this person appes
to have targeted any specific person.
It's just what it seems to be so
far as that these five women we.
As you say they were in the rigt
place just at the wrong time.
Obviously here to get some type
of treatment but just at the wrg
time on the wrong day.
Yeah. And and seemingly had no you know
hadn't choreographed an escape .
I mean he was just you know carjacking
that truck that we saw on the oe
back of the trailer and and he was off
and has not been seen since 12:.
And I think that is something
to worry about because again,
this guy, if he is having some
type of mental health crisis,
you know, they want to find him
before anybody else is hurt aga,
the good news so far,
even though we had some initial reports
that there might have been shots fired,
there were a lot of reports coming in
early on just with people trying to call
in and help that no other shots have been.
Fired. That we know of.
No one else has been hurt
since the initial shooting,
but you know he's still on the n
and police know that he is still
likely armed and they're just hg
that they can learn enough about him.
When they do engage with this g,
Dion Patterson,
they can get him to give himself
up peacefully again while they
want to track him down.
They want to bring him in and
figure out why he did this.
And of course,
if he needs help,
get him the help that he needs.
Cody Alcorn in Midtown. Cody, thank you.
Yeah, still a lot of questions
outstanding there that we will e
asking in the days and weeks to come.