The suspect in a string of random attacks in DeKalb County, Georgia, Olaolukitan Adon Abel, 26, a naturalized U.S. citizen who was born in the United Kingdom, was arrested Monday after the violence left two people dead and another wounded. He faces two counts of murder, aggravated assault, and weapons charges in connection with the attacks, which the Department of Homeland Security says also included the killing of a DHS employee.
DHS identified Abel as a U.K. national who was naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 2022 during the Biden administration. One of the victims was 40-year-old Lauren Bullis, who worked in the DHS Office of the Inspector General. She was found dead after being shot and stabbed while walking her dog on Battle Forest Drive, with witnesses describing a man standing over her before he fled the scene.
DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said in a statement that Bullis’s death underscores the toll of the alleged attacker, stressing that Abel “has a prior criminal record that includes convictions for sexual battery, battery against a police officer, obstruction, and assault with a deadly weapon, and vandalism,” and is now accused of murdering a DHS employee. Mullin also noted that Abel was previously arrested for the murder of another woman outside a Checkers and for shooting a homeless man outside a Kroger, while highlighting the agency’s safeguarding measures intended to prevent citizenship for individuals with criminal histories or lacking good moral character.
Before Bullis’s killing, police found a woman shot multiple times outside a Checkers on Wesley Chapel Road; she later died from her injuries. In Brookhaven, a homeless man sleeping outside a shopping center on Peachtree Road was ambushed and shot several times and remains in critical condition. Abel was later taken into custody in Troup County after law enforcement used license-plate recognition to track his silver Volkswagen Jetta.
Abel’s prior history reportedly includes an arrest for sexual battery in Chatham County last fall, for which he served jail time and was placed on probation, a probation that included a mental health evaluation. Mullin said the department is devastated by these acts and pledged ongoing efforts to pursue justice for the victims and their families.
