By Hope Dean, Atlanta News First
ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) — Atlanta police are asking the community to help them identify a person of interest in a fatal shooting.
On Wednesday, Aug. 9, police found a man with gunshot wounds in the middle of the road near Hosea L. Williams Drive SE & Howard Street NE. He was taken to the hospital, where he died from his injuries.
According to witnesses, the shooting happened around 8:15 p.m. Police told Atlanta News First the victim died around 9:45 p.m.
Now, police are searching for a man who may be related to the homicide. He reportedly goes by “Skinny Man” and is frequently in Kirkwood.
Atlanta police are searching for a man who goes by “Skinny Man” in connection to a homicide in Kirkwood.(Atlanta Police Department)
If you have any information, police ask you to reach out to Investigator Francis by emailing Ldfrancis@atlantaga.gov or calling (404) 546-2684.
Atlanta Police said on Aug. 22 that the investigation into this case is still ongoing.
The shooting renewed community concerns about emergency response times in Kirkwood.
Residents said the inability to reach 911 during an emergency is an ongoing problem for years. Residents say to reach anyone, they’re required to call a 10-digit 404 number – (404) 658-6666 – and there’s often a long wait.
A spokesperson for Atlanta Police told Decaturish there was “hardware failure” that contributed to the difficulty of reaching emergency responders after the Aug. 9 shooting.
“The city of Atlanta experienced a hardware failure that impacted the city’s network infrastructure,” the spokesperson said. “The outage affected E-911’s ability to electronically process calls, which caused the E-911 Center to implement its contingency operations. We are investigating to determine the cause of the system outage. The E-911 Division, along with Chief Darin Schierbaum and the City’s public safety responders, understand the importance of a quick response to emergency 911 calls. To provide quality, timely services for anyone who calls 911, we continue to upgrade and evaluate our systems.”
The spokesperson said the city plans to invest $15 million in proceeds from a bond referendum in its E911 infrastructure. The spokesperson said response times have improved recently. The average answer time in 2022 was 29.88 seconds. In 2023, the average answer time is 17.24 seconds.
The spokesperson said APD responded to the shooting within minutes. The Zone 6 Atlanta Police precinct is just down the street from the scene.
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Angela Walker contributed reporting to this story. Decaturish media partner Atlanta News First provided this story.