Man accused in DeKalb shooting spree had convictions in Savannah, California
A man accused of going on a shooting spree in metro Atlanta that left two women dead and a man seriously injured was previously convicted in Savannah and California, officials said.
Monday’s violence spanned several early morning hours across three locations in DeKalb County, police said, and the suspect’s rental vehicle was key in his arrest. The victims included a woman who was a passenger in his vehicle, another woman who was walking her dog and a man who was sleeping outside a business when police said he was randomly attacked, documents show.
Olaolukitan Adon Abel, 26, now faces two counts of murder, aggravated assault, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and possession of a weapon during the commission of a crime. Abel waived his first appearance hearing Tuesday and remains in the DeKalb jail.
Not even a year before this week’s deadly attacks, Abel pleaded guilty to four sexual battery counts, all misdemeanors, after multiple women in Savannah reported being groped on the same afternoon. Abel had a knife tucked into a sweatshirt pocket and, in one encounter, approached a woman while she was walking her dogs, according to a police report.
Officials allege he also approached one of this week’s victims while she was out with her dog in unincorporated DeKalb around 6:50 a.m. Monday. Lauren Bullis, 40, was the last of three attacked, according to authorities, and the only one to be identified publicly as of Tuesday afternoon.
An arrest warrant states Bullis was walking her dog when Abel passed her in a silver Volkswagen Jetta. He then got out of his vehicle, followed her down the street and was seen running back to his vehicle, officials said.
Cameras did not capture the assault, according to the warrant, but what happened before and after was recorded. Bullis was found fatally shot and stabbed on Battle Forest Drive, police said.
Amanda Renfroe told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution via text the incident “has been very difficult” for Bullis’ family. She added they have been searching for Bullis’ dog, Sancho, ever since the attack.
Hours before that incident, around 2 a.m., Brookhaven Police Chief Brandon Gurley said officers received a call about a 49-year-old man shot in front of a Kroger at the Cherokee Plaza along Peachtree Road. The same Volkswagen was seen leaving that scene.
“What we know now is that this individual was asleep in the area of the business and was shot multiple times from the suspect from his vehicle as he pulled into the shopping center in front of the closed business,” Gurley said. The man remained at Grady Memorial Hospital on Tuesday.
The alleged spree started around 12:50 a.m. after a woman was shot 14 times outside a Checkers restaurant on Wesley Chapel Road, according to authorities. She died after being taken to Grady.
Video footage shows the Volkswagen went through a drive-thru, the woman then got out of the passenger side and Abel got out from the driver’s side, a warrant states. He is accused of shooting the woman over the top of the car, officials said.
She ran away as Abel continued shooting, and then he left the scene, according to the warrant.
Abel’s criminal record has resulted in at least two convictions, including one on the West Coast that prompted the possession of a firearm by a convicted felon charge.
In June, he pleaded guilty in a Chatham County courtroom to four counts of sexual battery. He was subsequently sentenced to probation, banned from entering Savannah for four years and ordered to obtain a psychosexual social evaluation, documents show.
The charges stemmed from four instances where Abel “intentionally” touched “the intimate parts” of four women without their consent on April 20, 2025, according to court documents. The date fell on Abel’s birthday.
According to an incident report from the Savannah Police Department, a victim told police she was walking her dogs when a man came up to her and asked to pet them. She told the man no and continued walking.
The man then reached down, petted the dogs and grabbed the victim’s buttocks, the report states.
As officers were speaking to that victim, authorities said another 911 call came in to report an assault a few blocks away. Officers from a different precinct also advised they had “multiple” similar calls regarding “the same suspect sexually assaulting other women in their area.”
In total, five sexual assault calls came in within nearly an hour involving a suspect matching the same description, and four victims wanted to press charges, the police department said.
During his arrest in Savannah, officers found a knife in Abel’s sweatshirt pocket, the incident report details.
In October 2024, Abel was convicted in California. According to court records out of San Diego County, he pleaded guilty to felony assault with a deadly weapon other than a firearm on a police officer or firefighter, and felony vandalism. He was sentenced to probation. Details about that case were not immediately available.
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