Jimmy Hill is determined to continue his fight for justice after a federal judge decided Tuesday to drop the charges against retired Atlanta police officer Sung Kim, who shot and killed his son Jimmy Atchison in 2019.
“Change ain’t going to come if we sit back and wait on others,” Hill told Capital B Atlanta the morning after the judge issued his ruling. “You know, we gotta be able to have the courage to step out on faith and be the change we’ve been looking for.”
Atchison, a 21-year-old father of two, was accused of stealing a woman’s purse and cellphone at gunpoint; however, after he was killed, a witness said he didn’t have a gun. He had already evaded Kim and federal task force members on foot twice that day when they followed him into an Adamsville apartment, where he was hiding in a closet under a pile of clothes. According to the subsequent investigation, officers yelled conflicting commands at Atchison, like “Don’t move” and “Show me your hands.”
Other officers who were in the room told investigators that Atchison raised one or both hands quickly in the seconds before Kim fired his weapon. Last month, Kim — who was charged with murder, aggravated assault, involuntary manslaughter, and violation of oath — testified during an evidentiary hearing that he thought Atchison had a firearm and was going to shoot him.
In his order dismissing the charges, U.S. District Judge Michael L. Brown wrote that the shooting was “textbook self-defense.”
In the months following his son’s death, Hill’s family and Atlanta’s activist community led dozens of protests that led to the Atlanta Police Department pulling out of federal task forces entirely in 2019 because, at the time, they banned officers from wearing body cameras.
The following year, the Department of Justice changed its policy to allow local and state law enforcement to wear body cameras while serving on a federal task force.
Victories like APD’s withdrawal from federal task forces have bolstered Hill’s willingness to continue to fight for justice for his son.
Read More: Judge to Decide Whether to Move Forward With Trial in Fatal Police Shooting of Jimmy Atchison
“People respond to pressure,” Hill said. “I refuse to sit back, I refuse to be tired.”
Next on his agenda is to have the Fulton County District Attorney’s office appeal the judge’s decision up to the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit. Assisting Hill in this quest is Gerald Griggs, a local attorney and president of the Georgia NAACP. Griggs told Capital B Atlanta that he wrote a letter to the district attorney’s office Wednesday morning to stress the importance of appealing this case because Atchison was unarmed at the time of the shooting.
“We’re not gonna remain silent, we’re just going to keep going.”
Jimmy Hill, father of Jimmy Atchison
“We believe that [this] sets a dangerous precedent in the 11th Circuit, which covers most of the Southern states, that an officer can shoot an unarmed individual who’s been given several conflicting commands and in the face,” Griggs said.
A spokesperson for District Attorney Fani Willis’ office told Capital B Atlanta in a statement Wednesday afternoon that they are reviewing the decision and considering next steps. The office has 30 days to notify the court of appeals; after which, there is then time allotted for it to file documents with the court explaining why it is appealing and what specifically it disagrees with in the judge’s order.
According to Griggs, the 11th Circuit can take anywhere from six months to several years to decide whether to accept an appeal. If it agrees to take the case, it will order a briefing and the case will be assigned to either a single judge or a three-judge panel.
Griggs said he isn’t certain what the outcome will be because he’s seen the 11th Circuit deny appeals when the victim was armed, but hasn’t seen many where they’ve upheld the lower court’s decision when the victim was unarmed.
“It’s hard to say because it is one of the more conservative circuits in the United States, but I think based on these facts there needs to be an appeal, otherwise this sets a very dangerous precedent for the South and for the nation,” Griggs continued.
Regardless, Hill plans to continue to fight until he gets justice for his son.
On Mother’s Day weekend, Hill protested in honor of his son’s late mother, Cynthia Atchison, outside the megachurch of a local pastor who told Black parents to stop blaming white cops for killing their children. Hill said he believes Cynthia’s death in 2022 was due to a broken heart.
Read More: Viral Sermon Blaming Black Parents for Police Killings Sparks Mother’s Day Protest
“I’ll get out there and fight in the rain, in the heat, whatever,” Hill said. “I get out there and fight on days I didn’t want to fight. But I knew it had to be done because that’s my son and I love him. So we’re not gonna remain silent, we’re just going to keep going.”
