Two killed, one critical in Atlanta-area attacks; UK-born man charged, DHS worker among dead

Authorities said they believe at least one victim was targeted at random. The suspect’s documented criminal convictions — including a 2024 guilty plea for assaulting two police officers — all appear to have occurred after he was granted citizenship, and the Associated Press reported it was not immediately clear whether any criminal record predated his 2022 naturalization.

ATLANTA — A man has been charged in a string of early-morning attacks across the Atlanta area that killed two women and left a man in critical condition, authorities said Tuesday. One of the victims, Lauren Bullis, was an employee of the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General, a development that prompted DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin to raise questions about how the suspect had obtained U.S. citizenship.

The suspect, Olaolukitan Adon Abel, 26, a U.K.-born man who was granted U.S. citizenship in 2022, was taken into custody later Monday during a traffic stop in Troup County, which borders Alabama. He is charged with two counts of malice murder, aggravated assault, and firearms counts, court records show. He waived an initial court appearance Tuesday.

A morning of violence

The first attack occurred around 1 a.m. Monday. A woman was found with multiple gunshot wounds near a restaurant in the Decatur area and was taken to a hospital, where she died, DeKalb County Police Chief Gregory Padrick said at a news conference. Police have not publicly identified her.

About an hour later, in the Atlanta suburb of Brookhaven roughly 12 miles northwest of the first attack, a 49-year-old homeless man sleeping outside a grocery store was shot multiple times, Brookhaven Police Chief Brandon Gurley said. He remained 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 7 a.m., more than 10 miles away in the suburb of Panthersville, officers responding to a call found Bullis with gunshot and stab wounds, Padrick said. She died at the scene. Investigators in Brookhaven determined that all three attacks were connected, Gurley said. Authorities said they believe at least one victim was targeted at random, and possibly more.

Remembered for warmth and compassion

Bullis served in multiple roles at 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. DHS described her on social media as bringing “warmth, kindness, and a genuine sense of care to her colleagues each day.”

Her relatives said in a statement that she loved her family, running, reading, and traveling, and that “her warmth and generosity touched everyone surrounding her.”

Ashley Toillion, a fellow DHS auditor based in Denver, said she met Bullis at a work conference the previous year, and the two bonded over running and made plans to do a race at Walt Disney World.

“You couldn’t meet her and not be her friend,” Toillion said. “She was just the nicest, sweetest, most encouraging person I’ve ever met.”

The suspect’s background

Military records show Abel enlisted in the Navy in 2020 and last served in the Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron in Coronado, California. As a petty officer, he received a Navy “E” Ribbon for superior performance in battle readiness.

In October 2024, he was arrested and charged with assaulting two Coronado police officers with a deadly weapon and attacking another person. He pleaded guilty, court records show, and was kicked out of the Navy in September of that year.

Online court records show that a person listed with a similar name and the same birth date pleaded guilty in June 2025 in Chatham County, Georgia, to four misdemeanor counts of sexual battery.

The citizenship question

Mullin, in a statement posted on social media, said Abel had a criminal record that includes a sexual battery conviction and cataloged what he described as a series of prior alleged crimes. He did not specify whether any of those crimes occurred before Abel was granted citizenship in 2022, when Democrat Joe Biden was president.

Mullin wrote that since President Donald Trump took office, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services — which DHS oversees — has worked to ensure that people with criminal histories do not attain citizenship. The Associated Press reported, however, that the United States has long barred people convicted of most violent felonies from becoming citizens, and that it was not immediately clear whether Abel had any criminal record that predated his 2022 naturalization. DHS did not respond to an AP request for further details about the case or the defendant’s criminal history.

Abel’s brother, Toyin Adon Abel Jr., said he did not want to discuss his brother when reached by phone but expressed sympathy for the victims. “I feel terrible for the victims, their families and their connections,” he said. “It’s a horrible thing.”