ATLANTA — The suspect arrested on Wednesday in the killing of Secoriea Turner, the second arrest in the case, is accused of manning the illegal barricade the night she was shot and then chasing the car she was riding in following the gunfire. Under Georgia law, the suspect, Jerrion McKinney, is being charged as a party to the crime in the alleged shooting by the first person arrested in the case, Julian Conley. McKinney faces felony murder, aggravated assault and gang activity charges.
Arrest warrants allege McKinney, Conley and others who prosecutors called "other co-conspirators" were operating an illegal checkpoint on University Avenue in southeast Atlanta a few yards away from the Wendy's that had been burned following the police shooting of Rayshard Brooks. Through social media, photographic evidence and criminal history, the GBI determined McKinney and Conley were members or associates of the Bloods gang, the warrants state.
"Atlanta Police Department officers were not allowed into the area and the Bloods gang and its associates operated the area as an 'autonomous zone' in which the sovereign authority of the City of State were not recognized, and the Bloods gang exerted all control," the warrant states.
It was this environment, police allege, that surrounded the area when Secoriea, riding in a car with her mom and a man, was shot on July 4, 2020.
The warrant said the gang "controlled the area ... through the use of barricades and violence through the brandishing, pointing, and discharging of firearms at citizens and civilians to ensure compliance with their authority in a highly visible manner."
RELATED: Family of 8-year-old Secoriea Turner, who was shot and killed in Atlanta, plan to sue city, Wendy's
The warrants outline two previous incidents that evening, one in which a MARTA bus driver was allegedly stopped at gunpoint and then allowed to pass through the barricade, and then one in which a driver and his passenger were forced to turn around at the barricade at gunpoint. Conley and McKinney also face charges related to those two incidents.
When Secoriea's car arrived at the barricade at 9:46 p.m., the warrants state the driver tried to go around the barricade and that, as it did, Conley fired at the car with a bullet striking the young girl sitting in the backseat in the head.
"As the vehicle passed, McKinney chased the vehicle down the road away from the area," the warrant states.
Secoriea's mom and the driver immediately took her to the hospital, where she was pronounced deceased.
Conley's attorney previously denied his client shot Secoriea, saying that he had a gun at the time but was not the one who fired at the car.
"It was chaos, and everybody was shooting at one time," the attorney, Jackie Patterson, told 11Alive last year.
Secoriea's family said last month they plan to sue the City of Atlanta and Wendy's in the 8-year-old's death.