Prosecutors say a homeless Atlanta-area man acted as a straw buyer for the handgun tied to the attacks.
ATLANTA, GA — Federal prosecutors say a homeless man bought the handgun used by the suspect in a deadly DeKalb County shooting spree, opening a second criminal case as local authorities continue to investigate attacks that killed two women and critically injured another man on April 13.
The new federal case adds Damon Marquis Yarns, 35, to a fast-moving investigation already centered on Olaolukitan Adon Abel, 26, a U.K.-born Navy veteran charged in state court with murder, assault and gun crimes. Prosecutors say the weapon trail matters because Abel was barred from having a gun after a California felony conviction. The filing also gives the clearest account yet of how investigators say the 9 mm pistol reached him before the early morning attacks in Decatur, Brookhaven and Panthersville.
According to federal prosecutors, the shootings began shortly before 1 a.m. Monday when police found 31-year-old Prianna Weathers with multiple gunshot wounds outside a Checkers on Wesley Chapel Road in the Decatur area. She was taken to a hospital, where she died. About an hour later, authorities say, a 49-year-old homeless man was shot several times while sleeping outside a grocery store in Brookhaven, roughly 12 miles away. He survived and remained hospitalized in stable but critical condition days later. By about 7 a.m., police responding to Battle Forest Drive in Panthersville found 40-year-old Lauren Bullis, a Department of Homeland Security employee, dead with gunshot and stab wounds near where she had been walking her dog. DeKalb County Police Chief Gregory Padrick said investigators believe at least one victim was chosen at random.
The federal complaint, announced Friday by U.S. Attorney Theodore S. Hertzberg, says officers found a loaded 9 mm pistol and five 9 mm shell casings on the ground near Bullis. A trace through the National Tracing Center led investigators to Yarns, who they say bought the gun from a federally licensed dealer in midtown Atlanta on Feb. 20. When an ATF agent interviewed him Thursday, prosecutors said, Yarns admitted he had been living in homeless shelters since moving to Atlanta last year and said he bought the gun for a man he knew only as “Abdul or Obie.” He later identified Abel in a photo array, according to the complaint. Prosecutors say Yarns told agents that Abel paid for his rideshare trip to the gun store and that he falsely claimed on federal paperwork that he was the actual buyer. After the sale, the complaint says, Yarns handed the pistol to Abel and never possessed it again.
That account fills in a major gap in the case because Abel could not legally buy or possess a firearm if prosecutors are right about his record. Court records in California show he pleaded guilty in October 2024 in San Diego County to assaulting police officers with a deadly weapon and related charges tied to an attack while he was stationed at Naval Base Coronado. AP also reported that online court records in Georgia show a person with the same birth date and a similar name pleaded guilty in June 2025 in Chatham County to four misdemeanor sexual battery counts. Abel served in the Navy after immigrating from Britain and became a U.S. citizen in 2022 while in military service. The killings have drawn added scrutiny because Bullis worked for the DHS Office of Inspector General as an auditor and innovation leader, and federal officials publicly mourned her after the attack.
Investigators say evidence from the arrest helped connect Abel to the attacks. Georgia State Patrol troopers stopped his car around 11 a.m. Monday in Troup County, near the Alabama line, after investigators tracked a silver Volkswagen Jetta through camera systems and law enforcement alerts. Prosecutors said troopers found a box of 9 mm ammunition and shell casings in the vehicle matching the same brand of ammunition found at the Decatur murder scene. Brookhaven police have said their investigators were the first to determine that the shootings in three places were connected. Local authorities have not announced a motive, and it remains unclear whether Abel knew any of the victims. Police have said the Brookhaven victim appears to have been attacked at random, and they have left open whether the same was true in the other two cases.
More personal details also surfaced Friday from people who lived with Abel in a low-cost shared house in Panthersville. Three roommates told The Associated Press that he stormed out late Sunday night after a loud argument over the air conditioning. Angela Britton, one roommate, said, “He kept the house freezing,” describing a dispute she said had happened before but became more intense that night. Another roommate, Lakisha Mckinzie, said the tension in the home had grown so troubling that she called her mother before bed and asked for prayers. Those accounts do not establish a motive for the attacks, but they place Abel in a heated confrontation only hours before police say the shootings began. The housing platform PadSplit, where the rooming arrangement was listed, had not publicly addressed complaints from roommates in the reports reviewed Friday.
The legal picture is now split between state and federal court. In DeKalb County, Abel faces charges that include two counts of malice murder, aggravated assault and firearms offenses. In federal court, prosecutors have charged him with unlawful possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. Yarns is charged separately with making the illegal purchase, commonly known as a straw purchase, by allegedly buying the weapon for someone else and falsely claiming ownership on the required form. Yarns appeared Friday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Christopher C. Bly and was ordered held in U.S. Marshals custody pending further proceedings. Abel remained jailed in DeKalb County. Federal prosecutors stressed that the complaints are only charges and that both men are presumed innocent unless proven guilty at trial. DeKalb District Attorney Sherry Boston’s office is expected to continue leading the homicide prosecution, while federal authorities pursue the gun case alongside ATF and local police.
For the families and agencies left behind, the case is also about the people killed in a span of a few hours. Weathers was the first victim named by police. Bullis was remembered by co-workers and relatives as a warm, generous public servant who loved running, reading and travel. In a family statement released after her death, relatives said her “warmth and generosity touched everyone surrounding her.” A fellow DHS auditor described Bullis as “the nicest, sweetest, most encouraging person I’ve ever met.” Those remembrances have sharpened public attention on the case even as investigators continue to piece together the exact route, timing and intent behind each attack. The surviving Brookhaven victim has not been publicly identified, and authorities have said little about his recovery beyond describing his condition as serious but stable.
The case stood Friday at a new point: prosecutors had linked the gun to a second defendant, local police were still working through motive and victim connections, and both state and federal proceedings were moving ahead. The next milestones are expected to be court hearings for the firearms charges and further updates from DeKalb County investigators as they complete the homicide case file.
Author note: Last updated April 18, 2026.