The man who shot and killed a former Georgia State University soccer player early Sunday morning turned himself in Friday, an attorney said.
Emery Parrish, 29, surrendered to Atlanta police around 1:30 p.m., attorney Dennis Scheib said. He is in the Fulton County Jail.
On Thursday, Scheib gave The Atlanta Journal-Constitution a different set of events that led to Ayokunle Lumpkin's death than what had previously been told.
"The young man who was killed got into the car with my client," Scheib said of Lumpkin. "This would never ever have occurred if everybody was calm."
According to initial reports, Lumpkin and others at a gathering in southeast Atlanta chased after a driver who struck a friend's car and tried to leave.
Scheib tells another story, however.
"He parked and went to look at what happened to the Hummer [Parrish hit]," Scheib said of his client. "He told them, 'I have a driver's license and insurance,' but they wouldn't listen."
Instead, Scheib said a group of apparently intoxicated men and women, some of them holding cups, set upon his client.
"They tried to push him down and hit him," Scheib said. "He was assaulted and terrorized."
Scheib said when Parrish got into the green 1995 Ford Thunderbird he'd wrecked to retrieve his credentials, first a woman entered the car from the passenger side, then Lumpkin.
"He said, 'I was going to leave, but a guy got into the car and started hitting me,'" Schieb said, recounting Parrish's story.
Parrish retrieved a gun, and even chambered a round in plain sight of Lumpkin, Scheib said.
"The guy was in a position to see that, and he still didn't get out," Scheib said.
Parrish opened fire and then fled, leaving a wounded Lumpkin, 23, to die.
But Scheib acknowledged that for everything that Parrish did right that morning, he shouldn't have had a gun.
Parrish is a convicted felon with multiple arrests under his belt, including a 2003 drug conviction, according to court jail records.
Still, Scheib said Parrish was justified in shooting.
"He's got an absolute right to defend himself," Scheib said.
Parrish fled because he was scared, Scheib said, but he contacted the attorney immediately.
Scheib said on Thursday that police gave Parrish 24 hours to turn himself in. Parrish was taking that time to spend with his family, because he doesn't expect to be granted bond.
Parrish is charged with murder, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. He is scheduled for a first appearance hearing Saturday morning at Fulton County Jail but has the option of waiving that hearing, sheriff's office spokeswoman Tracy Flanagan said.
—Dispatch editor Angel K. Brooks contributed to this article.
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