Federal judge dismisses criminal charges against Atlanta police officer over death during arrest operation
A federal judge dismissed criminal charges against a former Atlanta police officer in the death of Jimmy Atchison, ruling that the actions Sung Kim took leading to the shooting of the 21-year-old Black man during an arrest operation were "textbook self-defense."
U.S. District Judge Michael Brown said in his ruling Tuesday that "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."
Kim was indicted in December 2022 on charges including involuntary manslaughter, felony murder and aggravated assault in the wake of the 2019 killing of Atchison, the subject of an arrest warrant for armed robbery.
Brown’s ruling said Kim was a member of the FBI Atlanta Violent Crime Task Force and that Atchison fled from law enforcement when they showed up to take him into custody at an apartment complex in January that year.
Kim eventually found Atchison hiding in a closet under a pile of clothes in another woman’s apartment and he "pointed his gun at Mr. Atchison and yelled ‘show us your hands,’ ‘don’t move,’ or something along those lines," according to the ruling.
"Mr. Atchison said nothing in response. Instead, he suddenly and rapidly moved one of his hands -- or potentially both of his hands ‘clamped together’ -- from underneath the clothes towards Defendant’s face/chest area," it continued. "Thinking Mr. Atchison had a gun and was going to shoot, Defendant fired a single shot that killed him."
The ruling said that prior to entering the apartment and then while going through its rooms, officers called out multiple times for Atchison to reveal himself, yet received no response.
"Under the doctrine of Supremacy Clause immunity, a state cannot prosecute a federal officer if (1) the officer was ‘in the performance of an act which he [was] authorized by federal law to do as part of his duty,’ and (2) ‘what the officer did was no more than what was necessary and proper for him to do,’" the ruling also said.
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Brown ultimately dismissed the charges on the basis of Supremacy Clause immunity and self-defense immunity.
"It is hard to celebrate when a young man died; but there is no doubt that the decision of the Fulton County DA’s office to compound the tragedy by prosecuting Sung Kim was an inexcusable abuse of prosecutorial discretion," Kim’s attorney, Don Samuel, told WSB-TV following the ruling. "Judge Brown’s decision was unambiguous: Sung Kim’s acted in self-defense."
When Kim was indicted in 2022, his father Jimmy Hill said "This is what we have been praying for, ever since that day Jimmy was taken from us."
"We have had marches, meetings, everything you can think of, to beg Fulton County to take action. I told the world I would never give up on justice for my son -- no matter how long it took," he added at the time, according to the Associated Press.
Kim retired from the Atlanta Police Department months after the fatal shooting, WSB-TV reported. In March, his legal team sought to dismiss the charges, according to Fox5 Atlanta.