ATLANTA — Editor's note: The video above is from a previous report.
A hearing for the former Atlanta Police Department officer facing charges in the 2019 shooting death of Jimmy Atchison wrapped up this week.
Sung Kim, pleaded not guilty last year after the case moved to federal court.
Documents from the Northern District of Georgia under the US. District Court shows Kim had an evidentiary hearing on Nov. 19. Several witnesses were called by the defense and attorneys went over exhibits. Court reconvened the following day with the state calling other witnesses; the hearing was concluded that afternoon. The hearing was held in front of Judge Michael L. Brown.
Court documents show that the parties should file post-hearing briefs no later than Jan. 21, 2025.
Kim was originally indicted in December 2022, and in January 2023, he filed to have the case moved to federal court. 11Alive reported last year that he planned to claim federal immunity from prosecution. Kim argues he was operating as a federal officer as part of the FBI Atlanta Metropolitan Major Offender (AMMO) Task Force when the fatal shooting occurred.
In 2019, Atchison was found hiding in a closet at the end of a foot chase through a building. A federal task force and Atlanta Police were attempting to serve a warrant for armed robbery, and upon finding Atchison, Kim shot him in the face.
In October 2019, the family said they met with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to hear the results of their investigation into the incident. They said at that time, they were told Atchison was given two conflicting commands by officers in the room -- to come out with your hands up and not to move. They said he was following the command to come out when he was shot.
Atchison was unarmed, and a witness later came forward to dispute that any robbery had ever occurred.
Kim was never disciplined by APD - instead retiring from the force roughly more than nine months after the shooting. The case was never brought before a grand jury until Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis did so in 2022.
A federal civil rights lawsuit, filed in federal district court in 2020, alleged that the officers entered the apartment of Atchison's infant son and the child's mother without a search warrant, and then pursued Atchison to another apartment, threatening the tenants with arrest if they were not allowed to enter without a search warrant.
While Kim retired before any determination was made by APD about discipline, the lawsuit said other officers were cited for violations of department policy during the raid.