Atlanta goes another year without completing citizen review of officer-involved deaths
A citizen board tasked with investigating deaths and serious injuries in Atlanta police custody opened a handful of investigations this year and is close to completing two of them but still faces a growing backlog of about 50 cases waiting for their action.
The board has gotten more money and hired more staff so it can pick up its pace, said the board’s chair, Kelvin Williams. He also acknowledged that 2025 closes with a large backlog of cases.
“We still have a lot of work that we have to do,” Williams said, adding that the board has no control over how quickly the board gets closed cases from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, district attorney and Atlanta police.
It was a challenging year, Williams said.
The year began with an Atlanta Journal-Constitution investigation that showed the board had neglected to investigate about 40 cases between 2020 and 2024, leaving families of the deceased without answers and the police department without the board’s recommendations for officer discipline and ways to prevent similar incidents in the future.
Ricardo Dorado’s family still waits for answers in the 2022 death of their 33-year-old son, who was held face down by Atlanta officers for 17 minutes before his heart stopped beating.
The parents of Nygil Cullins, 22, also wait for justice for their son, who was fatally shot by an Atlanta officer in May 2022 while armed with a gun during a mental health crisis.
“We’ve got to see more progress,” said Councilmember Andrea Boone (District 10), a critic and a champion for the review board, who heads the city’s public safety committee.
City Hall took notice of the AJC’s reporting during 2025, and some officials responded.
The City Council took emergency action to increase investigator jobs with the Atlanta Citizen Review Board. The agency now employs five investigators. The council also increased the agency’s budget from $1.6 million to more than $2 million.
Chief of Police Darin Schierbaum apologized in April for not immediately telling the board about all officer-involved shootings since 2020. Atlanta police and the board also entered into a landmark agreement this summer to share information about new cases within 24 hours to help move investigations along.
APD and the board also recognized for the first time that serious injuries in Atlanta police custody are reviewable by the board. In the past, on-duty sexual assaults and a sergeant who kicked a handcuffed woman in the face weren’t investigated by the board, even after the officers were criminally convicted, the AJC reported.
“APD needs to do their part,” Williams said.
But one issue continues to stymie the pace of the board’s investigations.
The board’s executive director, Lee Reid, remains firm on his position that his agency cannot investigate cases until the district attorney’s criminal and the police’s internal investigations are complete. The end result is delays of months or even years.
A national expert on police oversight boards told the AJC that boards with investigative powers, like Atlanta, can and do investigate parallel to police and the district attorney.
By the end of 2025, investigators were close to completing two cases, Deputy Director Sheena Robertson told the board in November. She did not say when the 13-member board would get to review them.
Boone said an energized board that the public can trust remains a top priority.
“This is one of the most important components to the city of Atlanta. To make sure that citizens are treated fairly, that we are taking a stand against police brutality,” Boone said.
Boone led the city’s public safety committee that demanded answers about the backlog of cases. She wants to see more board decisions in 2026 and for Reid to hire and train more investigators. That includes Reid evaluating if his staff has the skills, salaries and “do they have the heart for this, do they have the stomach” to do this work, she said.
Boone said the mayor and City Council have pushed back on Reid’s recommendations to improve the agency this year.
“Lee Reid needs the full backing of the administration and the City Council. It can’t be a one-man show. It has to be everyone pushing, pushing, pushing for this agency to get where it needs to be,” Boone said.
“As a city overall, we need to buy into the Atlanta Citizen Review Board,” she added.
Reid did not respond to interview requests from the AJC.
Families seek justice
Among the few cases under active investigation by the board is the death of Ricardo Dorado Jr. in August 2022. Multiple Atlanta police officers chased, shocked, beat and restrained Dorado face down on his stomach for 17 minutes, the AJC reported. Dorado died shortly after the incident at a hospital.
The city paid $3.75 million settlement to Dorado’s family for his death.
Atlanta police suspended two officers for using excessive force on Dorado and disciplined five more officers for failing to intervene. The investigation was shared with the AJC in January in response to an open records request.
APD did not share that information with the review board until this August, records show.
APD did not explain why it took months to share the findings of its internal affairs investigation with the oversight board.
“I would love to know the answer also,” said Williams, board chair, about the delay.
Board investigators are also looking into three other cases:
- The death of James Wilborn, 35, who was shot by Atlanta plainclothes police officer Jordan Hill, records show. Wilborn was involved in an argument with an ex-girlfriend when Hill intervened on Oct. 25, 2022. Wilborn threw punches at the officer, records show. Willis decided not to charge Hill in July 2024, and APD exonerated him for using force and a firearm a month later.
- The death of Johnny Hollman, 62, who was shocked with a Taser and held on the ground for refusing to sign a traffic citation after a car accident in August 2023, records and police video show. APD fired officer Kiran Kimbrough in October 2023, and the city paid $3.8 million to settle a lawsuit with Hollman’s family. A grand jury declined to indict Kimbrough in August.
- The death of Nygil Cullins, 22, who was shot when police responded to reports of an unruly patron at a Brazilian steakhouse in May 2022. Officers shocked Cullins with a Taser, and he ran outside. Cullins shot a security guard. Willis declined to prosecute officer Alex Luebbehusen for shooting Cullins in June 2024, and APD exonerated him for using his firearm, records show.
It has been more than three years since Cullins was shot by police, and his parents say they do not believe Atlanta police were properly trained to handle a person in a mental health crisis.
Cullins was being treated for bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and depression and was having delusional thoughts earlier that day, said his mom, Mya Speller-Cullins, who has advanced degrees in counseling and human behavior. She waited two hours for police to help transport Cullins to a psychiatric hospital when he left his home and was shot by the officer.
“I want accountability. I want Nygil’s case to be used as an example of what wasn’t done correctly,” Speller-Cullins said.
Quinten Cullins said the family was not contacted by the review board about the investigation, but he is supportive of the board taking an independent look at officers and circumstances of his son’s death.
“I just want justice for my son,” Quinten Cullins said.
Backlog continues to grow
The board’s backlog of cases grows each year. In addition to the approximately 40 cases initially reported by the AJC, there were an additional five officer-involved shootings and two in-custody deaths reported to the board in 2025, records show.
Boone said she is particularly concerned by reports that Atlanta police officer Gerald Walker fired 18 bullets at Linton Blackwell, 44, who allegedly had a gun and did not obey commands to get on the ground in northwest Atlanta on Oct. 11. Blackwell’s death is being investigated by GBI and Atlanta’s homicide division, records show.
Boone and 12 other council members sponsored a resolution that passed unanimously this month, requesting officials to release the body camera video to Blackwell’s family.
Officer Walker remains employed by APD and was reassigned away from “field operations,” an APD spokesperson wrote.
The shooting was reported to the review board under the terms of the agreement reached this summer, but the board has not opened a formal investigation of the incident.
Mayor Andre Dickens’ administration wrote the agreement would “improve the timeliness, effectiveness and transparency” of investigations of injuries and deaths in police custody. But the administration will not intervene to make investigations start faster. Under the city charter and the board’s own rules to preserve its independence, “the administration does not and cannot manage the process and timing of staff and board review of cases,” the spokesperson wrote.
Dickens appointed Schierbaum as the chief of Atlanta police in October 2022.
“The Mayor and APD are fully committed to the process of independent citizen review of APD actions and looks to the fully legally independent Board of the ACRB to fairly, thoroughly and expeditiously review cases,” the spokesperson wrote.
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