Four people are dead in a small south Georgia town after a 26-year-old gunman killed two relatives, a fast food employee and then himself on Thursday morning, according to the local coroner.
The man, who wasn’t identified, shot his 50-year-old mother and 74-year-old grandmother before going to a local McDonald’s halfway across town and killing a female assistant manager in Moultrie, Georgia, Colquitt County Coroner C. Verlyn Brock told USA TODAY.
Brock didn’t identify the victims and said family members were still being notified. He said it wasn’t clear what prompted the killings or whether the gunman knew the McDonald’s employee.
“Just a tragic thing to happen,” Brock said. “I don’t have a clue what might have prompted him to do such a thing.”
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation said it was investigating at the request of local police and said only that there were “multiple fatalities,” at more than one location. Assistant Special Agent in Charge Michael Callahan said GBI is working to track down more witnesses.
The Moultrie Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for more information.
George Suarez, the owner and operator of the McDonald’s, said the restaurant is working with GBI to investigate the shooting.
“We are devastated by the loss of our beloved restaurant manager, and our hearts go out to all the victims of this senseless act of violence,” Suarez said in a statement to USA TODAY. “In the wake of this tragedy, we’re focused on offering employees grief counseling and other support, and the restaurant will be closed until further notice.”
Sabrina Holweger, who works at an optometrist’s office next to the McDonald’s, told the Associated Press she arrived at work before 8 a.m. and saw a woman’s body lying in the doorway of the McDonald’s having been shot, with police on the scene. She said police had blocked off the main street there.
“It was really just scary not knowing if they had shot themselves,” Holweger told AP.
Moultrie is an agricultural community of just under 15,000 residents about an hour from the Florida border.
The killings come a day after a gunman in Atlanta killed one woman and injured four others at a medical center waiting room. An hourslong search for the shooter ended in arrest Wednesday night. The suspect, Deion Patterson, 24, has been charged with one count of murder and four counts of aggravated assault in Fulton County.
USA TODAY
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