UPDATE: A teenager wanted in connection with community leader Barney Simms' April 9 shooting death has been arrested, Atlanta police said.
Eric Banks, 17, was arrested Thursday afternoon in the 1800 block of Plaza Lane, police spokeswoman Officer Kim Jones said.
ORIGINAL STORY: The teenager wanted in connection with community leader Barney Simms' April 9 shooting death is from Atlanta, and police believe he is still in town, Atlanta Maj. Adam Lee III said Thursday.
Police released a photograph of 17-year-old Eric Banks, who was with Simms at the Waffle House on Virginia Avenue about an hour before the shooting. Banks is considered armed and dangerous.
Lee said police “have information” about a motive for the shooting, but he would not discuss it because it is part of an on-going investigation.
“That will part of evidence for possibly a trial later,” Lee said. “We’re hoping someone will recognize him and encourage him to turn himself in.”
Simms, 70, was shot about 2:30 p.m., and fell into six-foot hedges separating his property from his neighbor Loumerrel Gray. Gray, 87, discovered Simms body two hours later, after noticing his hat in her yard.
Simms was a prominent activist, who served on several boards, including as president of the Neighborhood Association of Southwest Atlanta, president of the Atlanta Planning Advisory Board, chairman of the Board of the Fulton County Department of Family and Children Services, secretary of the Atlanta Development Authority, chairman of Neighborhood Planning Unit-R and chairman of the city of Atlanta’s license review board. He also earned more than $236,000 a year as an executive with the Atlanta Housing Authority.
Mayor Kasim Reed said Simms murder was “personal to me.”
“Mr. Simms meant so much to our community,” Reed said. “This is personal to me … and this is a very real tragedy. He had great passion for our city.”
Lee said police have no information about the relationship between Simms and Banks, “if there is one at all.”
“All we have as far as them even being in the same company is the surveillance video from the Waffle House, which pretty much led us to figure out that he knew something about it because it was a short time before the shooting,” Lee said.
Simms’ car was missing from his driveway after the shooting. Police found it in nearby East Point Sunday morning. Lee said Thursday that he didn’t know if any evidence was retrieved from the car. Simms was shot once.
Anyone with information about Banks is asked to call 911 or Crime Stoppers Greater Atlanta at 404-577-TIPS.
For more information on the Simms shooting, go to myAJC.com.
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