Suspect Nkosi Thandiwe in Midtown triple shooting worked as security guard

The suspect arrested Friday in a deadly Midtown shooting that left one woman dead was hired to protect the building where the three victims worked.

Nkosi Thandiwe, 22, was a security guard at the Proscenium building.

Police say Thandiwe lay in wait for the victim who was killed on the third level of a Crescent Street parking deck.

Thandiwe realized he had been identified by police, called an attoey and tued himself in late Friday afteoon, police said.

He was charged with one count of murder and two counts of aggravated assault and is being held at the Fulton County jail without bond.

The shooting occurred shortly before noon in a parking deck at 14th Street and Crescent Avenue.

Authorities said Brittney Watts, 26, of Decatur, encountered the gunman on the third floor of the parking deck. He fired one shot, hitting her in the neck, then got into her Toyota Prius and drove away.

Police issued an area-wide lookout for the car, including a license plate number described by witnesses, and for a man matching Thandiwe's description.

Maj. Keith Meadows, head of Atlanta Police Department's major crimes division, said investigators believed the gunman was waiting for Watts.

As the gunman exited the parking garage, he fired several more shots, hitting Lauren Garcia, a 23-year-old inte for Midtown public relations firm the MSL Group, and her co-worker, Tiffany Ferenczy, 24. Police believe they may have been random victims.

Rod Wright, Ferenczy's father, told GA Daily News his daughter was going to have lunch with a group of co-workers when gunfire exploded on Crescent Street.

"All of a sudden, the car came out [of the garage entrance], Wright said. ”The car was blocked and the next thing you know, the guy comes out of the car and started shooting. That's when two of the victims got shot … my daughter and the other girl."

What followed was pandemonium, witnesses say.

Meredith Smith ran into the parking deck for cover when the shooting began.

"We were crossing the street and we heard a ‘pop, pop, pop, pop' and we ducked for cover inside the garage," Smith said. "When we came out, we saw a lady laying face-down in the middle of the street."

John Kupersmith, who works at Tin Lizzie, heard the gunshots from the restaurant’s patio. He said rather than driving people inside, the shooting brought more people out of the nearby buildings.

”I was seating tables when I heard four to five gunshots in quick succession, Kupersmith said. ”Everybody went to look. I came out and stuck my head out onto Crescent. There was a pretty big group of people on the street.

”And a lot of people were surrounding the lady who was face-down on the ground.

Garcia lay in the street, a bullet wound in her back, her purse and shoes strewn out across the ground in front of the entrance to the parking deck.

Ferenczy was hit in the leg.

"We're very fortunate," Wright said of his daughter. "[She was] shot in the calf ... she's going to be OK."

Watts was found in the parking deck dead, a single shot to her neck, police said.

"We are deeply saddened by today's unimaginable tragedy and the loss of Brittney Watts," said Julianna Bowman, a spokeswoman for 22squared, the Midtown marketing firm where Watts worked. "Our thoughts and prayers are with Brittney's loved ones, MSL Group and MSL's employees who were injured today."

Watts had been at 22squared since 2008, in the Proscenium building, across Crescent street from where she was killed Friday. She worked as a digital planning supervisor.

Meadows said the two survivors were taken to area hospitals where they are in "satisfactory condition" and talking with investigators.

Investigators are looking at whether the gunman was a disgruntled employee who targeted Watts.

"It was a pretty bold move of him to shoot so many people in the middle of the day," Meadows said.

AlliedBarton Security Services confirmed that Thandiwe had worked for the company a little less than a year. The company said it conducted a thorough background screening under the Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s security personnel clearance requirements, and Thandiwe's background check revealed no prior incidents.

The stolen Prius was recovered in southwest Atlanta, police said.

Police blocked off traffic along 14^th street between Peachtree and West Peachtree streets and from 14^th to 13^th streets shortly after the lunchtime shooting until about 4 p.m., and patrons parked at the parking deck weren't allowed to remove their cars until then.

Businesses adjacent to the parking deck saw their lunch crowds thin as few people could reach the restaurant on Crescent if they weren’t already at one of the establishments, owners said.

Investigators are reviewing video footage from surveillance cameras inside the parking deck, and perched atop street lights and traffic lights at the intersection of 14^th and Crescent and along Crescent.