‘A Broken System That Needs to be Fixed’: Father of Unarmed Black Man Killed by Atlanta Cop Outraged After Trump-appointed Judge Dismisses Murder Charges
An Atlanta cop who shot and killed an unarmed Black man complying with his orders to raise his hands in 2019 was cleared of murder charges by a federal judge this week, claiming the cop was acting in self-defense.
Atlanta police officer Sung H. Kim claimed he was in fear for his life when he killed Jimmy Atchison because the 21-year-old Black man had both hands “clamped together” when he raised them after being ordered to do so, making the cop believe he was holding a gun.
However, other cops at the scene who were part of a federal task force claimed Atchison only raised his right hand but pointed it at Kim, making them also believe he had been holding a gun – but none of the other officers fired their guns.
And Kim, who was a 26-year veteran police officer at the time of the shooting, later claimed he did not remember if he had ordered Atchison to “show us your hands” or “don’t move.”
But the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office determined in its investigation Kim had ordered Atchison to show his hands – which is the standard command when cops confront citizens – even for routine traffic stops.
And that is what got Atchison killed.
“This has been a prime example of a supreme failure in the criminal justice system,” Atchison’s father, Jimmy Hill, said in a telephone interview with Atlanta Black Star.
“It’s just unexplainable what this judge did, how he kept ignoring and locking out important evidence coming from the district attorney.”
The attorney representing the family, Gerald A. Griggs, has launched a petition on Change.org to persuade the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office to appeal the decision that has 51 signatures as of this writing.
Judge’s Decision
United States District Judge Michael L. Brown, who was appointed by President Donald Trump in 2018, dismissed the charges against Kim on Tuesday, claiming the cop was “immune from criminal prosecution” because the “reasonably believed” Atchison had a gun and was acting in self-defense.
According to Brown’s 25-page opinion:
Nothing required Defendant to hold off on shooting until he literally saw a gun in Mr. Atchison’s hand. He had a reasonable belief Mr. Atchison was armed and was going to shoot him. That is all that matters.
Indeed, the evidence for self-defense is so overwhelming it is hard to understand how Georgia could have brought these charges in the first place, much less continued with them over the two and a half years since. Defendant’s shooting of Mr. Atchison was textbook self-defense. The indictment charging him for that shooting is thus dismissed.
However, the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office in its investigation determined there was never any evidence that Atchison had a gun during a foot pursuit that lasted an hour while trying to serve a warrant, which, according to Hill, was based on lies.
The district attorney’s office also determined that Kim had lied when he told other officers of the federal task force that Atchison had a history of violence against cops. He also committed numerous departmental violations.
According to the 65-page report compiled by the district attorney’s office:
TFO Kim lied to the AMMO Task Force members at the briefing by stating that Mr. Atchison has a history of “resisting arrest and fighting with police officers,” despite evidence to the contrary.
- The previous arrest warrant for the charge of obstruction was issued on August 17, 2018 and states that “..[a]ccused did not offer and did not do violence to the person of said officer…….” (see Exhibit “A”) b. Mr. Atchison has no other arrests for violence against police officers.
Kim retired from the Atlanta Police Department after the shooting, which took place on Jan. 22, 2019.
Warrant Based on Lies
It all started after a woman named Kelly Brogan accused Atchison of armed robbery, claiming to police he had stolen her purse and phone at gunpoint on December 29, 2018.
But Atchison’s father said she lied to police because although he did take her phone, he never used a gun. He simply asked for the phone to make a call and then walked away with the phone without ever using force.
“This lady had never been subpoenaed,” said Hill. “She’d never have been subpoenaed for lying to us. After they found out she was lying, they never subpoenaed her. She’d been able to walk free.”
He also accuses Atlanta police of failing to follow due process before sending in militarized police to arrest a man with no history of violence.
“Atlanta police had it written down on paper that they would do a follow-up report between the witness and the accused, but they refused to do it, and that also played a part in my son’s death.”
Instead, they issued an arrest warrant for Atchison, which ended up in the hands of the Atlanta Metropolitan Major Offenders Violent Crimes Task Force, known as AMMO, which is overseen by the FBI but made up of federal and local officers.
Kim, who was tasked with preparing the arrest of Atchison, briefed the 12 other officers participating in the arrest, lying to them about Atchison’s violent past.
Donned in military gear, the cops broke into the apartment where Atchison was staying with the mother of his children, but he hopped out the window and ran away, prompting a foot pursuit that lasted about an hour.
Atchison ended up inside another woman’s apartment in another building, where he ran into a closet to hide. The woman told police that he was in her home, but never said anything about a gun.
The woman gave the cops permission to enter her home where Kim spotted Atchison hiding in a closet, covered in clothing where only his eyes were visible.
“TFO (task force officer) Kim gave Mr. Atchison commands to raise his hands and come out of the closet,” states the investigative report by the district attorney’s office.
“As Mr. Atchison raised his hands, TFO Kim fired one round at Mr. Atchison, striking him on the left side of the face. Despite attempts at life saving measures, Mr. Atchison died on scene.”
The district attorney’s office also uncovered numerous departmental policy violations, including refusing to wear body cameras as required by the Atlanta Police Department because they were operating under a federal task force, despite 11 of the 13 officers participating in the raid being employed by Atlanta police.
They also violated the law by entering the apartment of his children’s mother without a search warrant, which is different than an arrest warrant.
“The AMMO Task Force did not have a search warrant to enter the apartment of Miss James to apprehend Mr. Atchison, which is required by law to effectuate an arrest of a suspect in a third-party home,” the report states.
“PIU’s (Public Integrity Unit) investigation showed that the AMMO Task Force was aware that Mr. Atchison did not reside at the address and did not attempt to obtain a search warrant to enter the apartment of Miss James.”
And they violated policy by not contacting the department’s SWAT team, as they are supposed to do in cases where a suspect is barricaded.
“The AMMO Task Force led by TFO Kim should have contacted SWAT to handle a barricaded subject,” the report states. “The failure of TFO Kim to notify SWAT to effectuate the arrest of Mr. Atchison lead to his death.”
After concluding its investigation, the Fulton County District Attorney determined the shooting “was not justified” and presented its evidence to a grand jury in December 2022, which indicted Kim on charges of felony murder, aggravated assault, involuntary manslaughter, and violation of oath.
But Judge Brown dismissed the case against Kim claiming the Atlanta cop was acting under federal law since he was part of the federal task force, citing what is known as the Supremacy Clause that establishes federal law to be the “supreme law of the land,” overriding state and local law.
The only specific misconduct alleged in Defendant’s first indictment is his entry into Ms. Pless’s apartment (which allegedly violated the operation plan and led to Mr. Atchison’s death). No one disputes that, when Defendant entered the apartment to pursue Mr. Atchison, he was “in the performance of an act which he [was] authorized by federal law to do as part of his duty.
But Hill, who remembers his son as a man who loved to cook and who would feed the homeless, points out that the United States Constitution is the supreme law of the land, quoting a statement made by the Department of Justice a few years back.
“The Department of Justice made a statement and said that we are committed to prosecute law enforcement officers who willingly show a disregard towards the Constitution and who abuse their authority by violating the rights of others,” Hill said.
“And this is exactly what this officer did. He violated his oath, he willingly showed a disregard towards the Constitution and violated my son’s human civil rights. He violated Atlanta police and FBI policy. He violated his sworn oath.”
“It’s a broken system that needs to be fixed.”