Midtown Atlanta medical center shooting suspect deemed competent to go to trial
A man accused of opening fire in the waiting room of a Midtown Atlanta medical practice will go to trial nearly three years after the mass shooting.
Deion Patterson is accused of being the gunman in the shooting that left one woman dead and four others injured on May 3, 2023.
Authorities say around midday, Patterson went inside the Northside Hospital medical facility and began shooting. The suspect had become agitated while waiting for an appointment when he pulled out a handgun and opened fire, a law enforcement source told CBS News' Pat Milton.
Patterson is then accused of stealing a nearby pickup truck that had been left running and unattended and driving to Cobb County. He was captured hours later after several residents there called 911 to report seeing someone who matched his description.
He is facing one count of murder and four counts of aggravated assault in connection with the shooting.
Patterson's mother, Minyone Patterson, who police said had accompanied her son to the medical office, told reporters that her son, a former Coast Guardsman, had "some mental instability going on" from medication that he began taking days before.
The trial had been delayed after a Fulton County Superior Court Judge Eric Dunaway found in 2024 that Patterson was "incapable of understanding the nature of the charges or the object of the proceedings," declaring him incompetent to stand trial. The judge ordered Patterson to be committed to the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities for treatment, with the possibility that at a later date he would be deemed competent.
That day came on Thursday, when Dunaway declared that Patterson was now able to go to trial.
His trial date is set for June 1, 2026.
Remembering the victim in the 2023 Midtown shooting
Authorities identified the woman killed in the shooting as 38-year-old Amy St. Pierre, an employee at the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She left behind a husband and two young children.
St. Pierre has done research aimed at reducing pregnancy-related deaths, according to a 2021 research report she co-authored. That research involved a CDC program called "Enhancing Reviews and Surveillance to Eliminate Maternal Mortality." A key aim of the initiative is to work toward "the elimination of preventable maternal mortality in the United States."
"She was driven by compassion, both in her work in the field of maternal mortality, and in her everyday life," her family said in a statement issued Thursday. "Amy was selfless always, she wanted more for others but never for herself. Generous supporter of worthy causes, she was the social conscience of our family."
The Associated Press and previous CBS News reporting contributed to this report.
