COBB COUNTY, Ga. — For the first time, the Cobb County team that tracked down and arrested the Midtown Atlanta shooting suspect on May 3 is sharing how it managed to take him into custody.
Deion Patterson is suspected of shooting five women in a Midtown Atlanta medical office.
Cobb County Police Department Capt. Darin Hull and Maj. Brian Kitchens recalled watching closely as Atlanta Police Department officers searched for the suspect.
“You do have that fear because you know how much this is impacting the city," Hull said. "You know how the community is honestly terrified."
Kitchens said as soon as the news of the shooting hit, he packed up his things to head into the office.
“I started packing my stuff up, and I hate to admit this, but almost as an afterthought came into the real-time crime center," he said.
Atlanta Police eventually determined the suspect was able to slip away from the scene in Midtown in a stolen vehicle.
In Cobb's Real Time Crime Center, Kitchens said they saw the suspect on a surveillance camera walking near Truist Park.
“I would love to say that I wasn't worried at all," Kitchens said. "You don't want more victims but when you are two and a half hours behind, that's one of the first things that starts creeping in your mind."
At that point, Hull said it was all hands on deck.
"There’s a mission at hand and there's nobody else to do that mission," Hull said. "He’s in Cobb County, we are the Cobb County Police Department, and it’s our job to go find him.”
From headquarters, Hull and Kitchens made the call to Lt. Stephen Nolen and his violent crime response (VIPER) team.
“And as soon as we saw it hit we're like, 'You're up, let's go,'" Nolen said. "Now we’re the boots on the ground.”
He said the team moved quickly, but carefully, tracking the suspect.
“Knowing that he could be armed, we have to watch ourselves because we have children that we want to go home and see at the end of the night," Nolen said.
Officers rushed to The Battery where the suspect was last seen on camera, but by then, he was gone.
That's when Ashley Sanford, a criminal intelligence analyst who used to be a 911 dispatcher, flagged an interesting call.
“There was a citizen that called in reference a suspicious person in their neighborhood," Sanford said. “We kind of peer-reviewed it among ourselves to see like, 'Hey, is it worth letting the guys out there know?'”
Sanford said it was a difficult decision to make since moving resources was a risk. She vetted the information provided by the caller and determined it was likely a legitimate sighting.
"We decided 'OK, let's notify them,'" she said.
Nolen said as soon as they received the call, his team jumped into action.
“We sent some plainclothes officers in first, so possibly not alert or spook anyone, uniformed support that was just right behind them," he said. "They actually see him walking behind a building. They went down to the bottom of the hill and sure enough, that's where he came out.”
Sanford said it was a tense several minutes in the Real Time Crime Center.
“We knew that they had eyes on him, that they were out with him," she said. "We all just held our breath.”
The Cobb County officers were able to take the suspect into custody without incident.
“Everybody was safe, everybody had cover," Nolen said. "Everybody was watching each other.”
And just like that, the seven-hour-long manhunt was over.
“It was like the entire Atlanta metro area could take a breath," Hull said.
After the arrest, Nolen recalled how community members lined up on the streets and balconies in encouragement and thanks.
“When we get to the top of the hill and we were coming out of the apartment complex, people were lined up on the balconies, lined up on the intersections," he said. "Waving American flags off their balcony, clapping and cheering and thanking us. It was just overwhelming. That is why we do what we do.”
Even after the suspect was driven back to Atlanta to be in APD custody, Nolen said their job wasn't finished.
“We helped the children get off the school busses, talked to people saying 'you're safe now, we're here with you'" he said. "We're all humans and parents."
The team said the incident was the biggest test of Cobb’s Real Time Crime Center to date.
“Cobb County cameras were able to follow that car, we saw the suspect run," Hull explained. "Two years ago, it may have taken us a week to find that truck.”
Nolen said the information the center gathered was crucial.
“Had it not been for that information that day, I think we may have abandoned it," he said. "Without that information, we're just simply running around guessing.”
Cobb County Police said they're working to connect their crime center to similar centers other departments in the metro have, to better respond to cross-county incidents in the future.
“We all have family that live here and we want to take care of the community," Sanford said. "We want to see everybody go home at the end of the day.”