‘Why Are You Still Shooting?!’: Atlanta Off-Duty Cop Shoots Black Man 17 Times In the Back — Now a New Witness May Expose What Police Tried to Bury
It’s been weeks since an Atlanta police officer killed a 44-year-old Black man named Linton Blackwell by shooting him 17 times in the back outside a bar, and police have released very little details to the family of the slain rapper known as B Green. “It wasn’t just an execution but a new form of modern-day lynching,” said Blackwell’s cousin in a telephone interview with Atlanta Black Star. “How do you justify shooting him 17 times in the back?” said Jimmy Hill, whose own son, Jimmy Atchison, was killed by Atlanta police in 2019. Linton Blackwell was a 44-year-old father of two girls who was shot and killed by an Atlanta police officer who shot him 17 times in the back. Photo on the left shows him mingling with Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, photo on the right shows him with his two daughters and their mother at Disney World. (Photos: Jimmy Hill) A friend of Blackwell who was with him that night has made statements to local media contradicting the official police narrative. And Blackwell’s family has already retained an attorney. The official police narrative claims that Atlanta Police Officer Gerald Walker was working off-duty security near the Five Paces Inn in Atlanta’s Buckhead neighborhood bar district on Oct. 11 when he received a call from the Five Paces asking for help dealing with an argument outside the bar between Blackwell and another person. ‘I Don’t Live in the Hood, Brotha’: White Pennsylvania Man Fired from City Job After Calling Black Delivery Driver Racial Slur In Viral Video When Walker arrived to the bar, Blackwell walked away from him and retrieved an item from his car, putting that item in his waistband while ignoring commands from the off-duty officer regarding a gun, according to a press release from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, the state law enforcement agency investigating the shooting. That was when Walker opened fire, shooting Blackwell 17 times in the back and buttocks, according to the autopsy conducted by the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office. The GBI police narrative also states “a gun was recovered on the scene,” but does not say whether that gun was the item that Blackwell retrieved from his car or if it even belonged to him. However, the initial report from Atlanta police stated the “preliminary investigation indicates that the suspect was in possession of a firearm,” but that was before the GBI took over the investigation. But Hill is skeptical because police released Blackwell’s car to family members two hours after the shooting instead of impounding it as evidence as they usually do when they believe the car was used in a commission of a crime, especially anything having to do with guns, to allow them to thoroughly search the car for evidence. “Why didn’t they take the car as evidence?” he asked. “They released the car two hours later to one of my cousins, the same car they say he got whatever it was he got out of it.” “You know the coverup is real,” Hill said. Witness Contradicts Police The shooting was witnessed by Blackwell’s friend, William Stanley, who was with him that night, telling local media that the cop had been working security at the bar, which contradicts the police narrative saying he had been working at another location when he was called over to deal with Blackwell. Stanley told Atlanta Capital B that the cop, Walker, frisked both of them as they entered the bar, telling Blackwell something along the lines of, “We gonna be good tonight? We straight tonight?” — indicating they may have had prior interactions. Blackwell respond by saying, “We good, man,” Stanley said. He said they separated after entering the bar and it was not long before Blackwell was arguing with a white patron for reasons unknown to him and said he and Walker both got involved to break up the altercation. “When the altercation went down … I went over there to break it up and was right there with me breaking it up,” he told Atlanta Capital B. Stanley said that Blackwell then headed to the back door of the bar with Walker chasing after him. Stanley said he waited a few seconds before following them outside to the area where they had parked and the cop had already started shooting him. “ like he was trying to head back into the establishment, but the dude was already shooting him — he had already shot him over five or six times at that point,” Stanley told Atlanta Capital B. “Why are you still shooting him?” he said he screamed at the cop. Hill said there are several surveillance cameras in the area that should have recorded the shooting but no mention has been made by police about any available video or whether the cop was wearing a body camera. But Walker, who began working for the Atlanta Police Department in 2023, has already had seven policy violations, including six having to standard operating procedures regarding body cameras, according to Atlanta Capital B, which obtained his personnel file. Six of those seven policy violations were sustained. A Black man named Travis Walker who goes by travo_sponk on Instagram posted a comment on Blackwell's account, accusing the same cop of shooting him in the back. The police officer Gerald walker that killed this brother is the same guy who shot me in my back and leg and arm with a shotgun while my back was turned he is a menace and he is unstable and he needs to be in prison for this he’s a trigger happy thug with a badge and a gun I pray that your family gets justice because I’m seeking it as well #justice for @ogbgreen Another Black man named Timothy Nickson who goes by repotheworld on Instagram left a comment on a post written by one of Blackwell's friend, Timothy Coleman, saying he witnessed the shooting, and wished he could have done something to prevent it. I really wish I wasn’t busy talking & recognized BG we he ran past me. I would’ve just grabbed bruh & told him come with me. 😔 I watched the whole thing from the altercation spilling outside 5 paces, to the cop running him down & firing all those shots. The next day when they said it was him it crushed me. 💔 the cop & city has to be held accountable. BG didn’t deserve that. Cop was so busy trying to appease the white people who were oppressing BG that he gunned another brother down. Blackwell was a well-respected father of twin girls and had several brothers and sisters, Hill said. He also operated a business where he would drive people from upscale hotels to the airport in a black SUV. He even mingled with Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens on at least one occasion. Hill said the family organized a balloon release in his honor at a local park about a week after the shooting and more than 1,500 people showed up to pay their respects. “This has been devastating to our family,” Hill said. “To his girls and his brothers and sisters. They still having a hard time accepting this.” “He should have been allowed to make it home that night. His two daughters were waiting for him.” Atlanta Black Star has reached out to William Stanley for more information but he has not yet responded to inquires. Atlanta Black Star has also made formal requests with police to obtain any investigative reports, photos and videos so we will update this article if we obtain new information.
