No charges for off-duty Atlanta officer in deadly bar shooting

An Atlanta police officer will not face charges in the deadly shooting of a man outside a College Park bar nearly two years ago.

Prosecutors determined Melvin Potter was “justified in using deadly force” when the off-duty officer with a long history of disciplinary action against him shot and killed 38-year-old Devon Anderson during a fight.

Potter was on disciplinary probation by the Georgia Peace Officer Standards and Training Council at the time of the shooting.

Both the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office completed “full investigations” into the Aug. 5, 2024, shooting, a spokesperson for the DA’s office said this week.

“The available evidence indicates that Mr. Potter was justified in using deadly force in this matter pursuant to Georgia law on self-defense,” the DA’s office said in an email.

The case was not presented to a grand jury and is considered closed, the spokesperson said.

That news did not sit well with Anderson’s mother, who has spent the past two years pushing for charges against the officer who fatally shot her son.

Valerie Lans-Anderson discussed the case at Monday’s Atlanta City Council meeting, vowing not to rest until Potter faces consequences for the deadly shooting.

“I just wanted y’all to know that I am not going anywhere,” Lans-Anderson told council members. “Melvin Potter is a danger to the community, and he needs to be held accountable.”

Valeria Anderson, mother of Devon Anderson, fights back tears as she recalls the events leading to her son's death on Aug. 5, 2024. Devon was shot by an off-duty police officer, Melvin Potter, who was on probation from the Georgia Peace Officer Standards and Training Council at the time. (Miguel Martinez/AJC 2025)

According to the GBI, Potter and Anderson got into an argument outside Harold’s Chicken and Ice Bar that escalated to the point that the off-duty officer pulled out his gun and shot Anderson, who was unarmed.

A lawsuit filed by Anderson’s mother contends her son tried to defuse the situation, but Potter reacted “by invoking his APD authority.”

Potter is still employed by the department and remains on administrative duty, Atlanta police officials said.

Potter remained at the scene when South Fulton police arrived at the bar on Old National Highway to investigate the shooting, the GBI said previously. He spoke with authorities at the time and was arrested on a misdemeanor obstruction charge after refusing to take a blood-alcohol test, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

Potter was booked into the Fulton County Jail and released the same day on a $1,000 bond, online records show.

Devon Anderson was an aspiring rapper and fashion enthusiast with a proclivity for helping strangers, his mother said. She has spoken at dozens of Atlanta City Council and Fulton County Commission meetings, pleading for charges against Potter in the wake of her son’s death.

“You see stuff like this on TV, and you cry for those mothers even though you don’t know those mothers,” she said previously. “I would not believe in a million years I would be one of them.”

The GBI’s investigative file was not immediately available for release.

Potter has a lengthy disciplinary history since joining Atlanta’s police department in 2015. According to records obtained by the AJC last year, he’s been the subject of eight internal investigations for vehicle crashes, his conduct in court and allegations of breaking the law.