Atlanta Police Department officers have been accused of numerous questionable shootings in recent years including the controversial shooting of Rayshard Brooks during the summer of social justice in June 2020. Sadly, not much has changed since then and the local news is reporting another police killing that appears dubious at best.
According to 11Alive, the case of the fatal October 11 shooting of 44-year-old Linton Blackwell, professionally known as rapper B-Green, by an off-duty APD officer outside of a bar has a chilling update that has angered the victim’s family, friends, and the community at large.
The Fulton County Medical Examiner’s autopsy shows that Blackwell had 17 gunshot wounds that entered his back, unequivocal evidence that he was facing away from the off-duty officer who gunned him down. The officer in question, Gerald Walker, was working a side gig when he was asked to assist with an incident at Five Paces Inn. Blackwell was involved in the unspecified incident, but was walking back to his car away from the bar when Walker is said to have followed him and opened fire.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) says that Walker witnessed Blackwell place an unidentified object “in the small of his back” moments prior to the shooting. If that object was a firearm, and it was in the small of his back, then Blackwell was not a threat to Walker or anyone else at the time he was killed, a point that Blackwell’s cousin Jimmy Hill asked Capital B News:
“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?” Hill questioned.
Hopefully, the investigation yields enough information that the district attorney asks the same question to a grand jury.
