‘We’re family’: Midtown doctor called ‘hero’ after going back to save employees during mass shooting

ATLANTA — Channel 2 Action News is going back inside the Northside Medical office in midtown Atlanta with a doctor who helped save his staff during the midtown shooting.

In a Channel 2 Action News exclusive, Tyisha Fernandes spoke with a doctor who helped save his staff during the midtown shooting.

One woman was killed and four more were injured when a gunman, identified by police as Deion Patterson, opened fire at the Northside Hospital facility.

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Dr. Ahmed Ali walked Fernandes through what he did to earn the title of “hero” as the shooting unfolded.

Ali said he had already gotten most of his staff out of the building through a side door - but when he learned one staff member was hiding in the fitness center, Ali went back to get her.

“It was a regular day and I was on my lunch break, taking a work call,” he said. “It was a beautiful day out, so I decided to take that call and walk around the block.”

And as Ali took the stroll, he noticed a heavy police presence.

Then more police pulled up and they had a sense of urgency he hadn’t seen around his midtown office before.

“When I got to the lobby, police were running in with AR15s and assault rifles. I asked the security guard and he mentioned to me there were gunshots fired that were coming from the 11th floor and there was a pool of blood in one of the elevators,” Ali said. “So I b-lined back to my department at that point and when I got here.”

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Dr, Ali activated a “code silver” -- and then made a decision that put his own life at risk.

Instead of sheltering in place, he evacuated his staff. Most of them were already on the first floor and the door was just a few feet away.

“You don’t want to cause alarm. There are cancer patients and they’re being treated and so we have code words for different emergency situations,” he said.

When he noticed one staff member was missing and learned she was hiding in the office fitness center, he went back to get her.

“I had to make a decision. I just wasn’t OK with that. Right or wrong, that’s my staff. That’s my people. We’re family. And I just had to come get her and retrieve her,” Ali told Channel 2 Action News.

The staff member who had parked her car believes the suspect tried to take her car before he stole a pickup truck at a gas station around the corner.

She had bullet holes in the car’s door and the ignition had been tampered with. Channel 2 Action News has not confirmed that with the police.

After the shooting, police say Patterson drove to Cobb County where he ditched the car at a parking garage near the Battery. He was later found hiding in the pool house of a nearby apartment complex.

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