Charges tossed in Ga. cop’s killing of unarmed man hiding in closet

ATLANTA , Ga. - A federal judge has thrown out murder charges against a former Atlanta police officer who shot and killed an unarmed man hiding in a closet.

U.S. District Judge Michael Brown ruled Sung Kim, a 26-year veteran of the Atlanta police department, acted in self-defense and shouldn’t face charges in the 2019 killing of 21-year-old Jimmy Atchison.

“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,” Brown wrote. “Defendant’s shooting of Mr. Atchison was textbook self-defense.”

Kim was first indicted by a Fulton County grand jury in 2022, facing charges of involuntary manslaughter and violation of oath. His second indictment included felony murder and aggravated assault charges. His case was moved to federal court because he was assigned to an FBI fugitive task force when the shooting happened and thus was a federal officer.

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Brown argued Kim is protected by the Supremacy Clause, which he said protects federal officers from prosecution if their actions were authorized under federal law, and also has immunity by way of self-defense.

“Indeed, the evidence for self-defense is so overwhelming it is hard to understand how (prosecutors) could have brought these charges in the first place, much less continued with them over the two and a half years since,” Brown wrote.

In January 2019, Kim was part of a team with the FBI Atlanta Violent Crime Task Force, which had been ordered to arrest Jimmy Atchison at an apartment complex on an armed robbery warrant.

READ THE ORDER:

According to the order, Atchison jumped out of the window as officers entered the apartment he was in and ran toward other buildings in the complex. A resident told officers the suspect ran into her apartment, and she asked them to remove him.

The team found Atchison hiding underneath a pile of clothes in the closet. Kim pointed his gun at him, and Atchison “suddenly and rapidly” moved his hands toward Kim’s face from under the fabric, the order said.

Kim, who believed Atchison had a gun and was going to shoot him, shot and killed Atchison. The suspect was later found to be unarmed.

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Atlanta activists have cited Atchison’s death as an example of unjustified police violence against Black people. His name was often chanted by Atlanta protesters during Black Lives Matter protests in the summer of 2020.

The shooting also sparked policy changes. The Atlanta Police Department withdrew its officers from federal task forces because task force weren’t allowed to wear body cameras, meaning there is no video of Atchison’s shooting. Officers returned after federal agencies began allowing local task force officers to wear cameras.