Woman, 81, shot and killed on porch while playing cards

Mildred Martin was loved on Proctor Street.

“Anybody walking up and down the street, she would invite you in for water, food, to play cards,” Sabrina Tucker, the 81-year-old woman’s niece, told Channel 2 Action News. “She loved to play cards. She hated to lose.”

She was sitting on her porch, playing two-handed spades with a neighbor, when shots rang out about 11 p.m. Monday in the 900 block of Proctor Street. One of the stray bullets came through the porch’s screen, hit Martin in the back and killed her.

Steven Daniel, the man Martin was playing cards with when she was shot, told Channel 2 he thought she was having a heart attack at first.

“When she got hit, she fell back in her chair,” he said. “Like she got stung by a bee or something like that.”

However, after he called 911, Daniel saw the there was blood on Martin.

Investigators found shell casings about 200 yards from Martin’s home, but have no leads on who fired the shots, or a motive for the shooting, Channel 2 reported.

“I could hear them. They were shots,” Martin’s neighbor Alvin Sims told Channel 2. “As I said, in this zip code, there were shots all the time. It’s nothing new.”

Mark Harper told Channel 2 that he used to take care of Martin’s lawn and help her pay bills. When he found out she had been shot, he couldn’t believe it.

“I’m mad because, like I said, this lady was like a grandmother to me,” Harper told the station. “She’s always been there for me.”

Just before 2 p.m. Tuesday, Atlanta police Sgt. Greg Lyon said there was a $2,000 reward for any information leading to the arrest and indictment of those involved in the fatal shooting.

He urged anyone with information on the case to submit tips anonymously to Crime Stoppers Atlanta at 404-577-TIPS, online at crimestoppersatlanta.org or by texting CSA and the tip to CRIMES (274637).