A now-retired Atlanta police officer who was charged last month in the fatal 2019 shooting of a man hiding in a closet after fleeing from authorities wants the case moved from state to federal court.
Sung Kim was assigned to an FBI fugitive task force when he shot Jimmy Atchison. Seeking to have Kim’s murder case transferred to the US District Court, Kim’s attorney Don Samuel noted that Kim was working with the FBI’s Atlanta Metropolitan Major Offenders Task Force at the time. reported The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“At all relevant times, Kim acted under the color of federal law, consistent with his delegation as a member of the FBI’s AMMO Task Force,” Samuel wrote in a recent judicial motion.
A Fulton County grand jury indicted Kim in December on charges including felony manslaughter and manslaughter in a case Atlanta activists have cited as an example of wanton police violence against blacks. Atchison, 21, was killed on January 22, 2019, after Kim and other members of the task force attempted to arrest him on a warrant charging him with stealing a woman’s purse and cellphone.
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Authorities say Atchison fled officers through one apartment complex and then entered another. In his legal motion, Samuel said that after Kim found Atchison hiding in a closet, Kim ordered Atchison not to move.
Family members say Atchison was raising his hands in surrender when Kim shot Atchison in the face. Kim says that Atchison made a threatening move as if he had a gun. Investigators determined that Atchison was unarmed.
An Atlanta officer who fatally shot a black man hiding in a closet wants to move his murder case from state court to federal court.
“Disobeying this lawful order, Atchison raised his right arm in one swift motion,” Samuel wrote. “Reasonably fearing for his safety and the safety of his colleagues who were present in the room, Kim shot and killed Atchison.”
A report from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation determined that Atchison received conflicting orders, Atchison family attorney Tanya Miller said. She said one member of the task force told Atchison to come out with her hands up, while another told her not to move.
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Kim was not wearing a body camera because, at the time, FBI policy prohibited its use by agents and task force members. Kim retired from the Atlanta Police Department several months after the shooting.
