DECATUR, GA. — Olaolukitan Adon Abel, a 26-year-old U.K. native and U.S. Navy veteran, has been charged in state and federal court in connection with a series of shootings in the Decatur, Georgia, area early Monday that killed two people and critically injured a third. Authorities have linked Abel to all three attacks but have not offered a potential motive.

In DeKalb County state court, Abel faces two counts of malice murder, aggravated assault and firearms counts. He also faces a federal firearms charge accusing him of illegally possessing a firearm as a person previously convicted of a felony.

Abel packed a large duffel bag and drove off shortly after midnight Monday, according to investigators. Prianna Weathers, 31, was fatally shot outside a Decatur-area fast food restaurant at around 12:50 a.m., about 5 miles from Abel's home. At around 2 a.m., a 49-year-old homeless man was shot multiple times while sleeping outside a grocery store in Brookhaven, about 12 miles northwest of the first scene. He remains hospitalized in stable but critical condition. Around 7 a.m., Department of Homeland Security auditor Lauren Bullis was found with gunshot and stab wounds a few hundred feet from Abel's home while walking her dog. Police believe at least one victim was targeted at random.

Georgia State Patrol troopers stopped Abel's car around 11 a.m. Monday in Troup County near the Georgia-Alabama border. Ammunition and shell casings matching those at the scene of Weathers' killing were found inside the vehicle. Police found the gun and shell casings on the ground near Bullis.

Abel was charged in federal court with a firearms violation along with Damon Marquis Yarns, a 35-year-old homeless man accused of buying the 9 mm pistol used in the shootings at a federally licensed firearms dealer in Atlanta on Feb. 20. A special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives interviewed Yarns on Thursday. Yarns acknowledged buying the gun for Abel and falsely stating on a federal form that he was the owner, U.S. Attorney Theodore S. Hertzberg said. Yarns said he purchased the gun for a Nigerian or British man he knew only as "Abdul or Obie," and then identified Abel from a photo.

Abel was granted U.S. citizenship in 2022 while serving in the Navy and stationed in the San Diego area. In October 2024, he pleaded guilty in San Diego County, California, to charges of assault with a deadly weapon and criminal vandalism, according to California court records. San Diego authorities said the charges stemmed from an attack on two police officers and another person.

Abel lived with six others in separate units of a home listed on PadSplit. A housemate, Lakisha Mckinzie, said Abel inappropriately touched her last month after asking her on a date and frequently knocked on her door late at night. Mckinzie said she complained to her landlord multiple times but no action was taken.