Police have arrested a suspect who allegedly opened fire that killed a woman and injured four others Wednesday inside a medical facility in downtown Atlanta (Georgia, southeast USA), before carjacking and fleeing the scene of the crime, according to authorities.

The alleged assailant, identified by authorities as Dion Patterson, is a 24-year-old former member of the Coast Guard. Authorities previously described him as “armed and dangerous.” He was arrested north of the city, in Cobb County, several hours after the attack at Northside Medical.

The Cobb County Sheriff’s Department announced the arrest on Twitter, without providing details.

The car he had hijacked has been found.

Authorities recorded that all five victims of the mass shooting – attacks with the use of firearms that have four or more victims, in the terminology of US law enforcement forces – were women. However, the police believe that it is still too early to assess whether it was a premeditated crime.

The young man went to the medical center with his mother. The woman was not injured. According to police, he is cooperating with authorities.

The motive for the attack in Atlanta is unclear; little is known about the alleged attacker. The Coast Guard said he joined its ranks in July 2018 and was discharged in January. He did not specify the reason for his dismissal.

There are some 400 million guns in the U.S., in other words more than there are people, and they accounted for more than 45,000 total deaths in 2020 – homicides, accidents and suicides – according to the most recent official data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ( CDC).