The suspect in a series of attacks in DeKalb County, Georgia, is a repeat offender and a naturalized U.S. citizen from the United Kingdom, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
Olukitan Adon Abel, 26, was arrested on Monday after killing two people and wounding another in what police described as a series of random attacks in Pecs state.
Appel faces two counts of murder, aggravated assault and weapons charges in connection with the attacks, which the Department of Homeland Security said included the killing of an agency employee.
The Department of Homeland Security told Fox News that Appel was a British citizen who naturalized to become a US citizen in 2022 during the Biden administration.
The agency confirmed to Fox News that one of the victims, 40-year-old Lauren Polis, worked in the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General.
She was found dead after being shot and stabbed while walking her dog on Battle Forest Drive.
Witnesses told DeKalb police they observed a man standing on top of her before fleeing the scene.
“Yesterday, DHS employee Lauren Polis was brutally shot and stabbed to death by Olukitan Adon Abel, a 26-year-old, UK-born, naturalized citizen of the Biden administration in 2022,” DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullen said Tuesday in a statement to Fox News. “Since President Trump took office, USCIS has implemented measures to ensure that individuals with criminal histories who lack good moral character do not obtain citizenship.”
Before Bullis was killed, police found a woman who had been shot multiple times outside Checkers on Wesley Chapel Road.
She later died from her injuries.
Then in Brookhaven, a homeless man was ambushed and shot several times while sleeping outside a shopping center on Peachtree Road. He remains in critical condition.
Adel was later taken into custody in Troup County after law enforcement used license plate recognition cameras to track his silver Volkswagen Jetta, police said.
His prior criminal history reportedly includes an arrest last fall on a sexual assault charge in Chatham County. He was sentenced to prison and probation, including a requirement to undergo a mental health evaluation.
“He has a prior criminal record that includes convictions for sexual battery, battery against a police officer, obstruction, assault with a deadly weapon, and vandalism, and he is now accused of murdering Department of Homeland Security employee Lauren Polis by shooting and stabbing her while she was walking her dog,” Mullen said in his statement. “He was also arrested for the murder of an unidentified woman whom he reportedly shot outside of Checkers, before randomly shooting a homeless man multiple times outside a Kroger in Brookhaven.”
“These evil acts have destroyed our administration and my prayers are with the families of the victims,” the minister added.
Fox News’ Sarah Rumpf-Whitten contributed to this report.