A man accused of killing three people, including a Homeland Security employee, in a shooting spree in the Atlanta suburbs last week has died in custody, authorities said.
Olaolukitan Adon-Abel, 26, was found unresponsive in his prison cell on Tuesday at 6:48 p.m. Custodial staff tried to resuscitate him, but he was pronounced dead about half an hour later, the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.
“There is no indication of criminal activity or foul play,” the statement said. The sheriff’s office is reviewing the circumstances of the death, and the DeKalb County medical examiner’s office is trying to determine the cause and manner of death, said Deputy Chief Investigator Jess Dillard.
The investigation, including lab tests, “could take months to complete,” Dillard told CNN on Thursday.
Adon-Abel was charged with murdering Prianna Weathers, 31; Tony Matthews, 48; and DHS auditor Lauren Bullis, 40, in three locations miles apart on the morning of April 13. The motive — and why the shooter chose his victim — remains unclear.
The suspect’s death prompted strong reactions from Matthews’ widow, now raising the couple’s 10-month-old child on her own.
The victim, Tony Matthews, was helping his three stepchildren get green cards, his family said. He and his wife recently welcomed a daughter. – Courtesy Matthews Family
Dorah Matthews told CNN, “The killer is some dead-hearted man who doesn’t care about (anyone’s) life, including his own.”
The triple shooting — among nearly 4,000 U.S. gun deaths so far this year — also drew sharp criticism from DHS, which blamed the previous White House administration for allowing Adon-Abel, a native of the United Kingdom, to become a U.S. citizen in 2022.
A scary morning
The inexplicable rampage began just before 1 a.m., when Weathers was shot and killed near a restaurant in Decatur. Her 12-year-old son is now left to grow up without a mother.
About an hour later, Tony Matthews was shot multiple times near a grocery store in Brookhaven, about 15 miles northwest. Welder was the type of person to help someone, said his sister Miranda Matthews.
And shortly before 7 a.m., Bullis was shot and stabbed while walking her French bulldog in Panthersville, less than 10 miles from where Matthews was shot. Bullis was a DHS auditor, avid runner and world traveler who became fast friends with anyone he met, loved ones said.
Lauren Bullis taking a photo at Green Meadows Preserve in Cobb County, Georgia in 2025. — AP via Sunisa Kim Kip
The feds cite the criminal record, but the crimes may have occurred after citizenship
Adon-Abel was previously convicted of multiple felonies, including sexual battery and assault with a deadly weapon, DHS said. It accused the Biden administration of allowing “monsters” to become naturalized in 2022.
But DHS did not say whether those crimes occurred before or after the suspect became a U.S. citizen. The Justice Department described the sentence in 2025, years after the suspect was extradited.
Court records show a defendant listed as Adon Olaolukitan — with the same birth date as the triple-shooting suspect — pleaded guilty to four counts of misdemeanor sexual battery for the 2025 incident in Georgia. He was sentenced to 48 months of probation.
Another court filing shows he pleaded guilty in 2024 to felony assault with a deadly weapon “other than a firearm on a police officer or firefighter” in California. The record notes that the suspect’s name may also appear as Olaolukitan Adon Abel or Adon Olaolukitan.
Records show some other charges in the dismissed cases.
At the time of his death, Adon-Abel’s charges included malice murder and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, according to the Justice Department.
A tracing analysis linked the gun to the triple-shooting case, a homeless man who told authorities he allegedly bought the gun for a man he identified in a photo array as Adon-Abel, the Justice Department said. Yarns also faces federal gun charges.
A widow wanted to confront the suspect and offer mercy
While Adon-Abel’s death ends the charges against him, it also means that some answers may never be known.
“His death denied him the opportunity to fight the charges,” the Georgia Public Defender Council said. “We also regret that the families, friends and colleagues of the victims may now be left without full answers. … This is a painful and sobering reality for all those affected.”
Before Matthews was shot and killed, the father was “working tirelessly to secure green cards for his wife and stepchildren, hoping to build a better life for them here,” his brother-in-law wrote on a verified GoFundMe page supporting his wife and children.
“Now, his family faces not only the unimaginable grief of losing him, but also the uncertainty of their future in a new country.”
Matthews’ widow was “waiting for the day” she could face the man accused of killing her husband, she said.
“But still I want him to have mercy,” said Dorah Matthews.
“You know what I want to tell him? That I still forgive him – for killing my husband … (for) denying my child the chance to have that daddy bear hug.”
CNN’s Taylor Romine and Ryan Young contributed to this report.
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