Atlanta ? The man wanted in the serial killings of five women was arrested Tuesday in Atlanta, ending a monthslong hunt for a suspect in a case that terrified women across Louisiana.

Derrick Todd Lee, 34, was arrested around 8:30 p.m. by Atlanta police officers acting on a tip received by the FBI, Atlanta Police Chief Richard Pennington said Tuesday night. He was found wandering around a tire shop, Pennington said.

He said they approached the suspect and asked for identification, which Lee produced without incident. He was unarmed, police said.

“We have taken a very dangerous person that is a serial murder suspect off the streets,” Pennington said.

The chief said Lee could be returned to Louisiana as early as today.

Lee is the suspect in the killings of at least five southern Louisiana women since September 2001, and he is suspected in a sixth death more than a decade ago and the disappearance of another woman in a Baton Rouge, La., suburb. It was those two cases that led police to Lee.

Louisiana Atty. Gen. Richard Ieyoub, left, speaks during a news conference in St. Francisville, La., about south Louisiana serial killer suspect Derrick Todd Lee, pictured in the handouts on table. Lee was arrested Tuesday in Atlanta. Looking on, from second left, are West Feliciana Sheriff Austin Daniels, West Feliciana Sheriff's Office Chief Deputy Ivy Cutter and Chief Wendell C. Fontenot.

The serial killings unnerved Louisiana women and triggered a 10-month DNA dragnet in which police took cheek scrapings and swabbings from more than 1,000 men.

Residents at the Lakewood Motor Lodge in Atlanta said Lee had spent at least the last week there, charming residents, grilling ribs and chicken at a party, and setting up a Bible study.

Neighbors described Lee as a handsome, smooth-talking man who dated several women and promised them cognac if they would come to his room.

As he abruptly left his room on Monday, Lee told residents his mother was sick and he had to go home to Louisiana.

Lee was charged Monday with murder and aggravated rape in the killing of Carrie Yoder, 26, a Louisiana State University student who became the serial killer’s fifth suspected victim in March. A fugitive warrant issued for Lee before his arrest says DNA evidence indicates the same person who killed Yoder killed four other women starting in September 2001.

Police in Zachary, La., a suburb of Baton Rouge, obtained a DNA sample from Lee — which linked him to the five slayings — earlier this month because they were investigating him for an unconnected disappearance in their town. On May 5, the same day he voluntarily submitted the DNA, Lee abruptly pulled his two children out of school, saying he was moving to Los Angeles, according to Lloyd Lindsey, superintendent of the West Feliciana school system.

Authorities said they do not know the whereabouts of Lee’s wife and children.