A man suspected in a series of shootings targeting a Marietta townhome was arrested in 2016 after authorities said he opened fire on employees of a Cobb County mental healthcare facility as he was being checked in.
Tevin McDonald, 29, of Smyrna, was arrested Friday on multiple counts of aggravated assault and weapons charges related to three shootings at a Marietta townhome between Jan. 13-15, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution previously reported. Police have not identified a motive for the shootings, which involved the suspect walking up the steps and firing a quick burst of shots into the home’s front door.
More than five years prior, McDonald was arrested on similar charges after he was accused of shooting at several employees of Smyrna’s Ridgeview Institute, a psychiatric hospital, the AJC reported. One employee was hit and McDonald ran into the woods, where authorities searched for him for more than two hours before he was taken into custody.
McDonald was charged in November 2016 with three counts of aggravated assault, one count of possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony and one count of second-degree criminal damage to property, according to online court records. He was kept in jail without bond for months after the Cobb superior court judge overseeing his case determined that he posed a threat to the community, court records show.
The last entry on McDonald’s court docket from May 2017 is an order for psychiatric evaluation. It’s not clear when he was released from the Cobb County Adult Detention Center.
The day of the 2016 shooting, McDonald’s mother drove him to the Ridgeview Institute because she feared he was “having a psychotic episode,” a Smyrna police spokesman said at the time. In addition to injuring one employee, McDonald is accused of leveling his handgun at another employee’s forehead and verbally threatening them.
No further details about the shootings at the Marietta townhome have been released. No one was injured in any of the three shootings.
McDonald remains in the Cobb jail without bond, online records show.
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