Atlanta police recruit killed in motorcycle crash on way to work, officials say

An Atlanta police recruit was killed in a motorcycle crash on the city’s southeast side early Tuesday as he headed to work, officials said.

Moses Russ, 24, died after the motorcycle he was operating collided with a Nissan Kicks SUV at McDonough Boulevard SE and Moreland Avenue SE, according to police. The crash happened around 7:20 a.m., and Russ was later pronounced dead at Grady Memorial Hospital.

Russ was in his 16th week of training and would have been sworn in around the holidays, Atlanta police Chief Darin Schierbaum told reporters at an afternoon news conference. He called Russ “the exact type of person we would want to be a police officer.”

Russ had served in the U.S. Coast Guard before starting work in June 2024 with the city’s corrections department, officials said. He transferred to the police department this spring and spent several weeks deployed on a FIFA World Cup detail.

His death has been particularly hard for fellow members of his recruit class, the chief said.

“It’s tough. You don’t spend 16 weeks together and not get to know each other. You’re going through difficult times, you’re going through a lot of demanding training and you bond. And so they have lost a friend, a fellow recruit that is like a brother to them,” Schierbaum said.

Mental health professionals are on hand to meet with and support those colleagues, he added.

Mayor Andre Dickens, who also spoke at the news conference at the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, called it a “tragic loss of one of our own.”

Dickens said Russ had attended Fulton County schools and lived in the city.

Two members of the police academy staff who were also on their way to work came across the crash site, just north of the Starlight Drive-In Theatre, and began rendering aid, the chief said.

The crash investigation remains ongoing. Police said a preliminary review indicates Russ was driving a Kawasaki Ninja motorcycle south on Moreland Avenue through the intersection, and the driver of the other vehicle was headed northbound and attempted to turn left onto McDonough Boulevard.

“Both collided at the intersection. The Accident Investigations Unit will resume lead to determine all contributing factors of the collision,” Atlanta police said in a statement.