Police abandoned area where 8-year-old was shot, detective testifies
Atlanta police were told to avoid the area where Secoriea Turner was fatally shot in the days leading up to the 8-year-old’s death, a Fulton County jury heard Wednesday.
The testimony came as trial began for Julian Conley, the man accused of fatally shooting the child near the burned-down Wendy’s where Rayshard Brooks had been killed by an Atlanta police officer weeks earlier.
Armed groups had taken over the area at night, several witnesses testified, and jurors were shown surveillance footage of the makeshift roadblock set up during the summer of 2020 as civil unrest swept the city and the nation.
The prosecution’s first witness, Atlanta detective Jason Teague, said officers were told to avoid the intersection of Pryor Road and University Avenue at night in an effort to avoid potential confrontation with the groups.
“Generally, at night, people started showing up carrying long guns, walking in the area, blocking the street and confronting vehicles as they passed,” he said. “We were told to go ahead and leave the area.”
Secoriea, a rising Atlanta third grader, was shot while riding in the back of a Jeep on her way home from a day of July Fourth celebrations with her family, prosecutors said.
“Secoriea was just trying to get home,” prosecutor Adam Abbate told the jury. “She was happy, she was full of life, she was full of joy. All of that came to an end because of senseless gun violence.”
But Conley’s defense attorney argued that in their rush to arrest a suspect in the child’s high-profile killing, Atlanta police got the wrong man.
“He could not have caused that girl’s death,” attorney Arnold Ragas told jurors in his opening statement.
He said the Atlanta police investigation took nine days but argued authorities overlooked a number of other possible suspects who had also armed themselves with AR-style rifles near the southeast Atlanta intersection.
The area had become an “autonomous zone” after protesters burned down the Wendy’s in the wake of Brooks’ death, and police leaders ordered officers to stay away at night, authorities said. Prosecutors allege Conley and other Bloods-affiliated gang members had set up barricades, intimidated drivers and determined which vehicles could pass.
“During that time, the defendant and his gang took advantage of the fact that there was minimal police presence,” Abbate said.
Turner, he said, was shot because the driver of the vehicle she was riding in “had the audacity not to stop at this unlawful barricade.”
Ragas acknowledged that Conley had been at the scene that night. But he said he wore “a distinctive red shirt” and did not match the initial description of the shooter given by Turner’s mother.
He said armed activists opened fire at the SUV because it sped around the barricade and struck one of the protesters. But Ragas argued it could not have been Conley, who he contends was standing near the driver’s side door as the SUV drove by.
“The bullet entered from right to left, low to high, back to front,” Ragas said. “He didn’t do it.”
Conley voluntarily turned himself in after police circulated his photo, which had been captured on the surveillance camera of a passing MARTA bus, attorneys said.
Ragas said his client turned himself in an attempt to clear his name. Now, he said, Conley finds himself charged with “a crime he did not commit.”
Conley, who turned 25 on Wednesday, is among the longest-serving Fulton County inmates. He’s been in jail since his arrest at age 19. He faces more than a dozen charges in the high-profile case, including murder, aggravated assault, gang and gun-related counts.
Police said at least eight rounds hit the Jeep that Secoriea was riding in, one of which traveled through the backseat and into the child’s back. Secoriea’s mother, Charmaine Turner, jumped into the back of the car but could not save her daughter, who was pronounced dead at Atlanta Medical Center.
Jurors also heard from witnesses who said they were stopped by the armed group, including a MARTA bus driver and a couple who lived nearby that was forced to turn around.
“It was terrifying,” said Samantha McCord, who was stopped while driving home that night with her husband. “There was nothing we could do. There was nobody around to protect us.”
Jerrion McKinney, the only other person charged in the case, pleaded guilty last week to aggravated assault, gang, and weapons charges and avoided trial. He was given a 40-year sentence with 20 to serve, including credit for time he’s already spent in jail.
In March, the Georgia Supreme Court ruled McKinney could not keep evidence of his previous gun offenses in Missouri from being introduced in the case. The court’s unanimous decision affirmed an earlier ruling of the Georgia Court of Appeals.
Conley’s trial is expected to last through the end of next week.
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