An Atlanta man has been charged in a string of attacks over a matter of hours that left two women dead and a man in critical condition, drawing the Trump administration’s attention after one of the victims was identified as a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) employee who was walking her dog.
The killing of the DHS worker, Lauren Bullis, and shootings of the two other victims on Monday led homeland security secretary Markwayne Mullin to issue a statement raising concerns that the 26-year-old suspect, British native Olaolukitan Adon Abel, was granted US citizenship in 2022.
“These acts of pure evil have devastated our department and my prayers are with the families of the victims,” Mullin wrote in a statement posted on social media, cataloging a litany of the defendant’s previous alleged crimes but not specifying whether they happened before he was granted citizenship.
Authorities have said they believe at least one of the victims, the man who was wounded, was targeted at random. They said they were still looking into whether the other two victims were also picked randomly.
The first victim was found with multiple gunshot wounds near a restaurant in the Decatur area at about 1am Monday. She was taken to a hospital but died, DeKalb county police chief Gregory Padrick said at a news conference. Police have not publicly identified her.
About an hour later in Brookhaven, another Atlanta suburb about 12 miles north-west of the first attack, a 49-year-old homeless man who was sleeping outside a grocery store was shot multiple times, Brookhaven police chief Brandon Gurley said. The man, whose name hasn’t been released, remains hospitalized in critical condition.
“It is apparent to us that it was a completely random attack on a member of our unhoused community,” Gurley said.
Just before 7am and more than 10 miles away in the suburb of Panthersville, officers responding to a call found a woman with gunshot and stab wounds, Patrick said. The woman, Bullis, died at the scene. Investigators in Brookhaven determined that the three attacks were connected, Gurley said.
Adon Abel was taken into custody later on Monday during a traffic stop in Troup county, which borders Alabama. He has been charged with two counts of malice murder, aggravated assault and firearms counts, court records show. He waived an initial court appearance on Tuesday. Court records do not list an attorney.
Reached by phone Wednesday, Toyin Adon Abel Jr said he did not want to talk about his brother. But he expressed sympathy for the victims. “I feel terrible for the victims, their families and their connections. It’s a horrible thing,” he said.
Bullis served in multiple roles in the DHS office of inspector general, including as an auditor in the office of audits and as a team leader in the office of innovation, the department posted on social media, saying she brought “warmth, kindness, and a genuine sense of care to her colleagues each day.”
In a statement, Bullis’s family remembered her as “selfless, kind and compassionate”.
“She deeply loved her family and found joy in running, reading and traveling,” the family said. “Her warmth and generosity touched everyone surrounding her.”
Fellow DHS auditor Ashley Toillion of Denver said she met Bullis at a conference last year. The two became fast friends as they bonded over running and quickly made plans to have Bullis join Toillion in a race at Disney World.
“You couldn’t meet her and not be her friend,” Toillion said, choking back tears. “She was just the nicest, sweetest, most encouraging person I’ve ever met.”
Mullin, who took over last month after Kristi Noem was fired, said in his statement that Olaolukitan Adon Abel has a criminal record that includes a sexual battery conviction, though he didn’t say which year he was convicted. Online court records show that someone listed as Adon Olaolukitan, who has the same birth date as Adon Abel, pleaded guilty last June in Chatham county, Georgia, to four misdemeanor counts of sexual battery.
In his statement, Mullin noted that since Donald Trump returned to office, US Citizenship and Immigration Services, which the DHS oversees, has worked to ensure that people with criminal histories do not attain US citizenship.
But the US has long barred people convicted of most violent felonies from becoming citizens, and it was not immediately clear if Adon Abel – or Adon Olaolukitan, if it is the same person – had a criminal record that predated him becoming a citizen in 2022.
In response to a request for further details about the case and the defendant’s criminal history, DHS referred the Associated Press to its post about Bullis and her death.
