A third person has died after a US Navy veteran allegedly went on a shooting rampage after a disagreement over air conditioning.
Tony Mathews, a 49-year-old homeless man, died Sunday after he was shot in the early morning hours of April 13 outside a grocery store.
Authorities say they’re now seeking an additional murder charge against Olaolukitan Adon Abel, a 26-year-old U.S. Navy veteran who is already accused of killing two others in the same series of attacks.
Authorities haven’t offered a potential motive for the attacks. However, roommates have told The Associated Press that shortly before the shootings, Abel stormed out of his communal house after getting into an intense argument over the air conditioning in the home.
One of the other the victims was an auditor for the Department of Homeland Security who was walking her dog near the suspect’s home.
Abel, a native of the United Kingdom, was granted U.S. citizenship in 2022 while serving in the U.S. Navy and stationed in the San Diego area.
He’s already charged in Georgia state court with two counts of malice murder, aggravated assault and gun offenses. He also is facing a federal firearms charge, along with another man who is accused of buying the gun for him that was used in the shootings. Abel had previously been convicted of a felony and couldn’t legally buy a gun himself.
After leaving the house, investigators said, Abel traveled about 5 miles (8 kilometers) and fatally shot 31-year-old Prianna Weathers outside a Decatur fast food restaurant at 12:50 a.m.
Then, around 2 a.m., police say, Abel shot Mathews outside a supermarket in Brookhaven, about 12 miles (19 kilometers) northwest of the first attack.
Homeland Security worker Lauren Bullis, who was out walking her dog a few hundred feet from Adon Abel’s home, was found around 7 a.m. with gunshot and stab wounds.
It’s unclear if Abel knew any of the victims — police have said they believe at least one victim was targeted at random.
Georgia State Patrol troopers stopped Adon Abel’s car around 11 a.m. Monday in Troup County, not far from the Georgia-Alabama line. Inside the vehicle, investigators said they found ammunition and shell casings matching those at the scene of Weathers’ killing. Police found the gun and shell casings on the ground near Bullis.
The shootings led Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin to raise concerns that Adon Abel was granted citizenship when Democrat Joe Biden was president. Mullin catalogued a litany of the defendant’s previous alleged crimes, but it is unclear whether any of them occurred before he became a citizen.
Adon Abel pleaded guilty in October 2024 in San Diego County, California, to charges of assault with a deadly weapon and criminal vandalism over what authorities there said was an attack on two police officers and another person, according to California court records.
Online court records show that someone listed with a similar name and the same birth date pleaded guilty last June in Chatham County, Georgia, to four misdemeanor counts of sexual battery.
