The 40-year-old man who shot four people in the country's 31st mass killing this year needed mental help for nearly a decade but his family and officials couldn't force him to get treatment, his mother said.
Andre Longmore walked through his neighborhood in the semi-rural suburb of Hampton, Georgia, on Saturday and fatally shot four neighbors, all older adults. The killings set off a massive search that ended Sunday with Longmore dead in a shootout in another suburb about 15 miles north of Hampton. The exchange of gunfire wounded a sheriff’s deputy and two police officers, who all were expected to recover.
Longmore had a "mental breakdown" in 2014, leading to an inpatient hospital stay, his mother Lorna Dennis, told WSB-TV on Sunday.
She said her son "kept deteriorating" but refused to seek medical attention, and that officials said they couldn’t force him to seek care.
"It’s hard to lose your son, and it’s also hard to know your son cost the life of so many people," Dennis said.
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She said Longmore had served in the Army, was living with her in recent years, and that she hoped that relatives of the victims could find peace with God.
"I feel so much for the families, and that’s why I just want to say I’m very, very sorry. I know words cannot really comfort them from me at this time, but I know there is a comforter, and they can refer to him at any time," Dennis said.
The Army says Longmore was a sergeant, working as an automated logistical specialist from August 2000 to May 2006, overseeing supplies and equipment. He deployed to Afghanistan, served under hostile fire and was a trained parachutist, driver and mechanic.
Hampton Mayor Ann Tarpley announced Sunday that the city would hold a prayer vigil Monday for the four people who died in that city of 8,000 — Scott Leavitt, 67, and his wife, Shirley Leavitt, 66; Steve Blizzard, 65; and Ronald Jeffers, 66.
"Today is about the victims of this tragic event," Tarpley told reporters Sunday. "It’s about their families, and it’s about the community."
All four lived in the same subdivision as Longmore, where about 40 houses flank a lake on two streets about 25 miles south of Atlanta. Police and witnesses say Longmore shot the four within about 10 minutes on Saturday morning before stealing Blizzard's SUV and fleeing.
Residents in the Dogwood Lakes subdivision were surprised that gun violence had come to their peaceful neighborhood, where houses with neatly kept yards cluster around a small lake.
"I'm not going to say it makes me uneasy, but it does drive home that this kind of thing could happen anywhere," said Kevin Pugh, who lives next door to the house where the Leavitts had lived for a few years with their adult daughter and her young children. "Up until Saturday, the most ruckus we had was the Canadian geese."
Tom Hannegan has lived in the neighborhood for 12 years and is president of its homeowners association. He and his husband, Donald Smith, said the only crime they ever remember hearing about was a rash of car break-ins about five years ago.
Hannegan said Longmore attended a couple of association meetings with his mother a few years back, but he didn't really know him. Longmore sometimes rode an electric scooter around the neighborhood or drove really slowly up and down the dead-end streets.
"You could just tell he was a little out there," Hannegan said. "He would tell people he was a prophet."
The shootings marked the 31st mass killing of 2023, taking the lives of at least 153 people this year, according to a database maintained by The AP and USA Today in a partnership with Northeastern University.
Longmore was killed about 15 miles to the north of Hampton in suburban Jonesboro. Clayton County police said a Henry County sheriff's deputy saw the stolen SUV and began chasing him, calling for help.
Officers traded fire with Longmore before he ran away and entered the backyard of a townhouse, bleeding and naked, and ran into the house to hide. When officers entered the townhouse, Longmore began shooting at the officers, witnesses and police said.
A Henry County sheriff’s deputy and two Clayton County police officers were injured in the attempt to arrest Longmore, officials said. The sheriff's deputy was shot in the back and underwent surgery. Both Clayton officers were released after treatment for minor injuries.
Jeffers was remembered as a devoted member of his church. Sherry Wyatt, who works at Hampton's recreation center near Jeffers’ home, said Jeffers would regularly come in to sing at the senior center that shares the building.
A few months ago, Jeffers came over to her side of the building to practice and she told him how beautiful his voice was.
"I’m just so glad I told him he sang like an angel," said Wyatt, adding her heart was heavy Sunday over his death. "I know he is in heaven now singing."
Hannegan and Smith live two doors down from the house where Blizzard had lived since the subdivision was built in the 1990s. One of the few remaining original homeowners, they said, he was vice president of the homeowners association and previously served as its president.
"He was just a good guy," Hannegan said, noting that Blizzard often helped clean up or trim bushes in common areas.
Hampton is home to the Atlanta Motor Speedway, Georgia's racetrack for NASCAR events. The most recent homicide before Saturday in the town of 8,000 was in 2018, officials said.
