Woman accused in Midtown shootings had ties to victims

The woman accused of killing two people and wounding a third in Midtown Atlanta had ties to the condominium building and office where the shootings took place, according to authorities.

Raissa Kengne, 34, is also accused of holding a fourth person at gunpoint during the Monday shootings. Kengne is charged with two counts of felony murder, four counts of aggravated assault, four counts of possessing a gun during a felony and one count of false imprisonment. She was denied bail Tuesday and remains jailed in Fulton County.

The first shootings happened at a condominium building in the Midtown neighborhood where Michael Shinners, a 60-year-old property manager, was shot and killed. Michael Horne, 68, the chief building engineer, was wounded, according to the building’s management firm. A warrant obtained by local news outlets alleges Kengne held a third person at gunpoint and demanded personal property from them.

Kengne is accused of fatally shooting Wesley Freeman, 41, a short time later in an office building blocks away. Freeman later died at a hospital, according to the county medical examiner’s office.

Atlanta police said they did not immediately know what prompted the attack, but they believe the victims were targeted.

“We do not believe these were random acts of violence,” Interim Atlanta police Chief Darin Schierbaum said at a news conference Monday.

Kengne had sued Freeman and others over a dispute at her former employer, an accounting firm.

In the lawsuit, Kengne said she faced “retaliation, persecution, harassment, intimidation, threats, burglary, computer hacking” after she said she noted a “significant deficiency” in an audit that was disregarded.

Freeman, whom Kengne described in one online post as the “laziest manager I have had the displeasure of working for,” was one of multiple defendants in the federal lawsuit filed by Kengne earlier this year, which was later dismissed.

Kengne accused the condo association of letting people into her home to facilitate “harassment and retaliation” from the accounting firm and others. The management firm described her as a “disgruntled resident.”

Law enforcement officers from multiple agencies descended on the Midtown area, telling residents to stay inside as they searched the area. Atlanta police said an “extensive camera network” helped them track the suspect.

Local news outlets report that U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents arrested Kengne at the international terminal of the Atlanta airport about two hours after the shooting. Mayor Andre Dickens said the woman was arrested before entering a restricted area and the “security of the airport was never compromised.”

Schierbaum said investigators tracked Kengne to the airport by contacting a taxi company she used. He said officials recovered a gun when she was arrested.