ATLANTA — There are still no answers yet in the officer-involved shooting that resulted in the death of 21-year-old Jimmy Atchison.
And that lack of answers prompted his family and their attorney to file a request for a civil rights investigation.
Atchison was shot and killed in late January by Atlanta Officer Sung Kim. Kim, serving on an FBI task force, wasn’t wearing a body-camera when he served a warrant for Atchison’s arrest. The FBI said Atchison ran and was killed after leading officers and agents into an apartment. The family of Atchison maintains he was unarmed and shot in a closet while surrendering.
According to Tanya Miller, the FBI, which is investigating the case, still has not contacted the family to give them any information or ask questions. A letter was sent to the FBI demanding a meeting in early March.
A response letter was sent to Miller, the attorney for Atchison’s family, from the FBI a couple of weeks later. In it, the special agent in charge writes the circumstances surrounding the shooting are being investigated.
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The letter goes on to say, “the results of Inspection Division's findings have been shared with the U.S. Attorney's Office, the Fulton County District Attorney's Office, the GBI, and will be shared with the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division.”
The letter states those entities are conducting their own independent reviews.
“Now, what does that mean?” Miller said to 11Alive’s Hope Ford. “We don’t know what that means. Again, no one from the FBI has had so much as a conversation with Jimmy’s family about what this investigation revealed. Is it finished? Is it not finished? Are there other parts to this investigation? What are the next steps that they can take? None of those questions have been answered for us.”
11Alive reached out to the FBI, which said the investigation is still on-going and they can’t comment at this time.
Miller sent a follow-up letter to the FBI and called the investigation of Atchison’s killing sloppy and admonished the FBI for still not contacting the family for over two months. The letter was also sent to Attorney General William Barr and the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. Miller said she is requesting the Department of Justice and its Civil Rights Division to investigate.
Bret Williams, an Atlanta-based attorney, spent four years working with the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division and said it is likely there will be a preliminary investigation.
“That’s an investigation into whether or not there have been civil rights violations and, of course, whether that officer should be brought up on charges in relation to civil rights violations,” Williams said. “There’s an additional layer here and that layer is not so much the offense or the alleged offense, but whether it violates Mr. Atchison’s civil rights.”
Williams said the investigation would not look at if the officer was reckless or negligent, but if the officer had bad intent or a bad motive. In his opinion, the FBI not involving the family in the investigation is what could prompt the Civil Rights Division to look over the case.
“In my opinion, one could take the failure to involve and discuss the case with the family and inquire of the family as kind of a 'Nothing to see here. Move along',” Williams said.
Miller, who is a former state and federal prosecutor said the lack of communication is a red flag.
“Never, in any case that I have ever participated in, has the investigating agency not had a single conversation with the family of a victim.”
The attorney added that the family simply wants to know what happened that prompted the shooting.
“If the FBI has investigated this shooting and they believe this is [a] justified shooting, put that before the public," Miller said. "Let us see the results of the investigation and let us judge for ourselves.”
The FBI letter also extends a meeting to the Atchison family. Miller said they agreed to a meeting but have not heard back from the FBI on when that will take place.
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and Atlanta Police Chief Erika Shields both spoke to the family privately following weeks of requests. Miller said the two leaders both expressed their condolences and apologized for lack of communication. Miller said the two also had no details about the FBI-led investigation.
The attorney hasn’t heard back from the Department of Justice on whether or not they will launch an investigation within their Civil Rights Division.