Linton Blackwell, a 44-year-old father and local rapper who was killed earlier this month by an off-duty Atlanta police officer, had approximately 17 gunshot wounds, according to the autopsy report created by a Fulton County medical examiner. 

The report documented two bullet wounds in the right upper back, one in the buttocks and 14 in the mid and lower back.

Blackwell’s death on the night of Oct. 11 was officially ruled a homicide. 

Blackwell, known to his family and friends by his stage name B Green, was shot outside 5 Paces Inn. Capital B has identified the Atlanta police officer as Gerald Walker. Blackwell was pronounced dead at the scene. 

According to a preliminary statement by the Atlanta Police Department, the off-duty officer was working a security job nearby when he responded to a request for assistance due to an argument at the bar. 

However, William Stanley, Blackwell’s friend who was with him at the bar that night and one of the last people to see him alive, said the officer was already at the bar.

A witness recounts the fatal shooting 

Stanley told Capital B Atlanta on Friday that the officer who shot Blackwell was working security at the bar and patted them both down when they first arrived. He said he knew the man was a police officer and not a regular security guard because he had a T-shirt with the Atlanta police emblem on it.

“That was my first time being to that bar, but [Green] had to have been there before and had something going on with the officer because when we first walked into the club, the guy was like, ‘OK, we gonna be good tonight? We straight tonight?’ and [Green] was like ‘We good, man.’” Stanley remembered.

According to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, which is currently investigating the shooting, the officer was made aware of an argument involving Blackwell taking place outside the bar. 

But Stanley said the fight happened inside. He said he and Blackwell split up when they got inside so he doesn’t know what the fight was about.

“When the altercation went down … I went over there to break it up and [the officer] was right there with me breaking it up,” he said.

After the argument, Stanley remembered seeing Blackwell head toward the back of the club. He said he didn’t see it himself, but he said other people told him they saw the officer running after Blackwell.

“I didn’t immediately run back there because I didn’t want to make the situation hot, and because I didn’t know what the hell he was doing,” he said, referring to Blackwell.

Stanley said that when he eventually walked around the back of the building to where he and Blackwell had parked, that’s when the shooting began.

“When I bent the corner … I saw BG. [He looked] like he was trying to head back into the establishment, but the dude was already shooting him — he had already shot him over five or six times at that point.”  

That’s when Stanley said he screamed, “Why are you still shooting him?”

The investigation

The GBI statement said the officer observed Blackwell grab something from his car before Blackwell tried to reenter the bar from the rear parking lot. The officer then reportedly gave Blackwell a number of verbal commands related to a gun before he opened fire.

Law enforcement agents who responded after the shooting found a handgun on the scene but did not say who it belonged to.

The Atlanta Police Department and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation have declined to comment on the incident while the investigation is ongoing.

A family seeks answers

In the nearly two weeks since the shooting, Blackwell’s family has sought answers about what happened, but it hasn’t been easy.

Erika Bouttry, who shares 15-year-old twin daughters with Blackwell, told Capital B Atlanta that multiple attempts to communicate with the GBI investigator have gone unanswered.

Other members of Blackwell’s family questioned the circumstances of the shooting. 

“They say he stuck [something] in his back. So if he stuck it in his back, why did you shoot him that many times? Why did you even shoot him if nothing was aimed at you?” Jimmy Hill, Blackwell’s cousin, told Capital B Atlanta.

For Hill, this is not the first time he’s lost a loved one to police brutality. In 2019, his son Jimmy Atchison — who was unarmed at the time — was shot and killed by an Atlanta police officer. Earlier this year, a federal judge dismissed the case against the officer, who has since retired from the force.

As for Bouttry, she said she will always remember Blackwell as a good friend, a great co-parent, and someone who was very easy to get along with.

“[He was] very giving, motivating, always telling me to be great, to keep going,” she said. “As a father, he gave the girls unconditional love and positive words about staying on their grades in school.”

She recalled the last time she and her daughters, Destiny and Dynasty, saw Blackwell alive, just a few days before he was killed, during a normal custody exchange for the girls, who split time equally between their parent’s homes.

“He had just brought them down from his place to my car with their bags, and we said our goodbyes,” Bouttry said. 

She said she was up all night after she got the call about the shooting but didn’t break the news to her daughters until the next day after she had confirmation that Blackwell was the victim.

“They were devastated,” Bouttry said. “They were looking forward to spending time with him during fall break, shopping for winter clothes, and having a daddy-daughter date.”

At a balloon release in DeKalb Memorial Park last week, dozens of friends and family members gathered to remember Blackwell, a man they said would do anything for his family, especially his twin daughters.

“He’s an angel gone too soon, but he will watch over us,” his aunt Faith Harper said.