Secoriea Turner’s parents meet with Fulton DA

ATLANTA - The parents of Secoriea Turner, the 8-year-old girl killed at the site of the police shooting death of Rayshard Brooks in 2020, met with Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis Tuesday. After the meeting, they said they are encouraged by the pace of the criminal investigation.

"Secoriea should be here," said the child's mother Charmaine Turner following the meeting with the DA. "We are encouraged with the active investigation. We are grieving and we will continue to fight."

The parents of Secoriea Turner have filed a lawsuit against the city of Atlanta over her death.

The complaint alleges numerous failings on the part of the city, including that Atlanta officials were negligent in their duties by not removing armed protesters who had taken over the Wendy's where Rayshard Brooks was shot and killed three weeks earlier.

Family attorneys said the DA provided detailed information in the criminal investigation that proves the child's death could have been prevented.

"It got confirmed that the failures of the city of Atlanta, city of Atlanta officials and police department is a major reason why this family lost their beautiful daughter," said attorney Sean Williams.

The meeting is days after the arrest of a second suspect in her murder, 24-year-old Jerrion Amari McKinney.

Police arrested 20-year-old Julian Jamal Conley following Turner's death. He appeared in court for a preliminary hearing in July.

 Conley and McKinney were charged with pointing AR-15 style guns at former NPU Y Chair Christopher McCord, just minutes before Turner was shot. That came out during the preliminary hearing for Conley.

According to police, Turner was riding in a Jeep with her mother and an adult friend when they turned off the Downtown Connector onto University Avenue slightly on the night of July 4, 2020. 

Protestors had recently erected illegal barricades, according to authorities, encircling a nearby Wendy's that became a gathering point after Rayshard Brooks' death at the hands of an Atlanta police officer.

When the driver attempted to enter a liquor store parking lot on the 1200 block of Pryor Road, police say he was confronted by a group of armed individuals who had blocked the entrance. Authorities said at least two men fired multiple times at the vehicle, hitting Turner.

The DA said the suspects are gang members, members of the Bloods gang, and were involved in the unrest to protest the shooting of Brooks, who she said was a fellow Bloods member.

Attorneys for the family say evidence the DA shared with them proves what they've contended all along, that APD was aware that a dangerous gang element had taken over the area where Secoria was killed and turned a blind eye to the situation.

"We fully intend to get to the bottom of the civil aspects of this matter and hold fully accountable the officials, elected and appointed of the city of Atlanta, whose hands are just as much a part of this tragedy," said attorney Harold Spence, "as the armed vigilantes who were out there on the night of July 2020."

Mckinney and Conley remain in the Fulton County jail without bond. 

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