As his fiancee watched, the brother of a prominent Atlanta minister was shot multiple times and killed early Tuesday during a robbery at his home, police said.
Jerrick Jackson, 47, was shot multiple times in the torso inside his northwest Atlanta home, located in the 2400 block of Lowe Street, in a neighborhood off Hollywood Road. Jackson died after being transported to Grady Memorial Hospital, according to police.
Jackson was the younger brother of Bishop Wiley Jackson, founder and pastor of the Gospel Tabernacle Cathedral. In a statement released Tuesday afternoon, Wiley Jackson asked that those responsible for his brother’s death surrender.
“To the young men who committed this senseless act, as a man of faith and a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, I have already forgiven you,” he said. “But I ask you to turn yourselves in so that you can begin the process of true redemption.”
Jerrick Jackson and his fiancee had just returned home from a fast-food restaurant around 1 a.m. when they were approached by several males with guns drawn, Atlanta police said. The suspects may have exited from a black Mustang before approaching the couple.
After robbing Jackson and the woman of a wallet and purse outside the home, the suspects ordered the couple inside the home, where Jackson and one of the suspects began to fight, according to police. One of the suspects then shot Jackson several times before the suspects left the home in the same vehicle.
Jackson’s future step-daughter, Anbiya Mitchell, heard the commotion from an upstairs room, she told Channel 2 Action News. Mitchell said Jackson told the suspects not to go upstairs. And when Jackson fought with a suspect, Mitchell says he saved her life.
“I know he died a hero. That’s what makes me happy,” Mitchell told Channel 2 through tears. “I could have lost both my parents. Just to know he did that for me means the world to me.”
Atlanta police Major Darryl Tolleson said homicide investigators had several leads in the case, but no suspects had been named late Tuesday. Investigators believe the motive was robbery, but are not ruling out other possibilities.
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