Officials have identified the man who died Friday after he was shot, then pushed from a car onto the downtown Atlanta connector.

Homer Thirkield, 19, was the man who was shot in the 1600 block of Sylvan Road, then left on I-75/85 northbound near I-20, the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office said Saturday.

Thirkield was pushed onto the interstate in front of a Clayton County ambulance, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution previously reported. The emergency workers on that ambulance began performing CPR on the victim, and took him to Grady Memorial Hospital. Police said about 4:30 p.m. that he had died.

Investigators are searching for the red and black cars and any information about the people fighting on Sylvan Road, or what they were fighting about.

About the Author

Keep Reading

Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney speaks at an emergency hearing at the Fulton County Courthouse in Atlanta on Monday, Dec. 15, 2025. Attorneys seek to delay the execution of Stacey Ian Humphreys, who sits on death row for the murder of two Cobb County real estate agents. (Arvin Temkar/AJC)

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

Featured

A migrant farmworker harvests Vidalia onions at a farm in Collins, in 2011. A coalition of farmworkers, including one based in Georgia, filed suit last month in federal court arguing that cuts to H-2A wages will trigger a cut in the pay and standard of living of U.S. agricultural workers. (Bita Honarvar/AJC)

Credit: Bita Honarvar