Atlanta veterans demand mental health treatment for Midtown shooting suspect

ATLANTA - A metro Atlanta veteran's organization says Midtown shooting suspect Deion Patterson should not be in the Fulton County Jail.

Justice for Veterans says Patterson is mentally ill and should be in institution.

"Before, it was police killing veterans, this time it's veterans' killing civilians," retired Lt. Col. Amos King declared.

Either way, the Justice for Veteran's founder, says there is a problem. The Army veteran believes active shooter suspect is mentally ill. The 24-year-old man opened fire in a Midtown medical waiting room earlier this month, shooting five women, police say. Amy St. Pierre, one of those victims, did not survive.

Amy St. Pierre (Supplied)

Lt. Col King says Patterson needs mental treatment, not jail time.

"What Deion Patterson did was wrong. He killed a person and shot four other persons, but he's mentally ill, and the government has to afford him an opportunity to get well," King exclaimed.

King says nobody wants to focus on how it got to this tragic point.

"What caused that? It's not the norm to do what he did. He went into a building and according to the police department, after two minutes, he shot five people that's not normal period what triggered him?" the Army veteran questioned.

Patterson's mother, who has apologized for her son's actions publicly, says Deion received an honorable discharge from the US Coast Guard in January. She agrees with Col. King.

"My son, Deion Patterson, has an affliction with mental illness.

Deion Patterson (Fulton County Sheriff's Office)

"Mental health illness is a very disgusting disease that isn't widely discussed, it's not talked about. Everybody hides from it," Deione Patterson's mother

Minyone Patterson shared. 

Meantime, King says if we don't address mental illness, the violence will continue.

"He's not the first, and he won't be the last," King warned.