A federal judge on Tuesday dismissed charges against a former Atlanta police officer in the fatal shooting of an unarmed Black man more than six years ago.
Sung Kim faced murder and other charges in the January 2019 task force shooting of Jimmy Atchison. Kim, a 26-year veteran of the department, argued he feared for his life when he opened fire on Atchison, who had been hiding in a closet of an Atlanta apartment.
In dismissing the charges brought by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ office, U.S. District Judge Michael Brown said Kim’s actions amounted to “textbook self-defense.”
“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,” he said in his ruling.
Kim, who was working with the FBI’s fugitive task force at the time, testified last month that agents tracked the 21-year-old to the bedroom of an Atlanta apartment, where Atchison was hiding in the closet under a pile of clothes.
With his gun drawn, Kim said he instructed Atchison not to move. That’s when he said Atchison quickly raised his right arm from inside the pile of laundry.
“I assumed he had a firearm. I thought he was going to shoot me,” Kim testified last month at the federal courthouse in downtown Atlanta. “I feared for my life.”
Atchison, a father of two, was wanted for allegedly stealing a woman’s cellphone at gunpoint, but he did not have a weapon on him when he was killed, investigators found.
His fatal shooting sparked protests in Atlanta and policy changes within the police department after it was revealed that federal task force members were not allowed to wear body cameras.
In the wake of Atchison’s killing, the Atlanta Police Department withdrew its officers from federal task forces. Those partnerships resumed after a change in federal policy allowing local task force officers to wear body cameras.
Credit: Christina Matacotta
Credit: Christina Matacotta
In a scathing statement released Wednesday, the NAACP condemned Brown’s decision to dismiss the ex-officer’s indictment, saying it effectively gives law enforcement “a license to kill.”
“This ruling opens the floodgates for unchecked violence by law enforcement,” Georgia NAACP President Gerald Griggs said. “He is stating that an officer can shoot to kill if they believe you have a gun — even when you don’t. That is not justice. That is legalized murder."
Atchison’s father, who spent years seeking accountability for his son’s death, seemed devastated by the judge’s decision.
“I’m disappointed, but sometimes if there’s no struggle there’s no progress,” Jimmy Hill told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Hill said the DA’s office informed him of Brown’s decision late Tuesday and that he was still reading over the judge’s ruling to see “why he didn’t do his job.”
Several current and former task force members said in court that Atchison ignored officers’ commands to surrender after leading them on a chase through three separate apartments inside the northwest Atlanta complex.
“I believed he was raising a gun,” said special agent Matthew Winn, one of several law enforcement officers tasked with finding Atchison and arresting him.
“It happened so fast I didn’t have time to shoot,” Winn said on the stand, adding he would have fired too if Kim hadn’t shot first. “It is my opinion that he posed a deadly threat when he raised his hand.”
Others who testified on their former colleagues’ behalf said they had no way of knowing whether Atchison had a weapon and that Kim did “what he was trained to do.”
“No officer wants to be in that situation,” Atlanta police investigator Mason Mercure said at Kim’s self-defense hearing last year.
Kim retired from the department months after the deadly shooting. In late 2022, he was indicted on charges of felony murder, aggravated assault, involuntary manslaughter and two counts of violating his oath of office.
He was among more than two dozen current and former police officers indicted by Willis in years-old use-of-force cases.
Kim’s attorney, Don Samuel, successfully had his client’s case moved to federal court the following year, citing the former officer’s role with the FBI’s Atlanta Metropolitan Major Offender Task Force.
In a statement Tuesday, Samuel said the DA’s office abused its power by indicting his client.
“It is hard to celebrate when a young man died, but there is no doubt that the decision of the Fulton County DA’s office to compound the tragedy by prosecuting Sung Kim was an inexcusable abuse of prosecutorial discretion,” Samuel said.
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Brian Watkins, head of the Fulton DA’s Civil Rights Division, contended there was no need for Kim to open fire, suggesting the task force officers could have called in a SWAT team or a police K-9 to help them take Atchison into custody.
But Brown said law enforcement’s actions that day were “necessary and proper,” noting Atchison had already taken “extreme measures” to avoid arrest.
“Nothing required (Kim) to hold off on shooting until he literally saw a gun in Mr. Atchison’s hand,” said Brown, who was appointed in 2018 during President Donald Trump’s first term. “He had a reasonable belief Mr. Atchison was armed and was going to shoot him. That is all that matters.”
It’s unclear if prosecutors plan to appeal the judge’s ruling. A spokesperson for the DA’s office said Wednesday they’re reviewing the decision before determining what to do next.
Atchison’s family filed a wrongful death lawsuit in 2020 seeking $20 million in damages. That case is still pending.
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