Atlanta Mayor On Death Of 8-Year-Old Girl: ‘We Are Doing Each Other More Harm Than Any Police Officer On This Force’

Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms slammed the local community on Sunday during a press conference about the death of 8-year-old Secoriea Turner, who was killed on Saturday evening when an armed group of individuals opened fire on a car that she was riding in near the Wendy’s where Rayshard Brooks was killed last month.

“Officers said they responded to a 911 call near University Avenue and I-75/I-85 around 9:50 p.m.,” WSB-TV reported. “The location of the shooting was in a parking lot across the street from the now burned-out Wendy’s, which has been occupied by demonstrators since Brooks’ death at the hands of an Atlanta police officer.”

At a press conference, Bottoms slammed the violent act and noted that locals were inflicting more harm on the community than any police officer ever has.

“Secoriea Turner was shot and killed last night, and it was not by the hands of police officers,” Bottoms said. “It was by the hands of a coward, cowards, who are still out and about in our community. This happened … near the Wendy’s where Rayshard Brooks was killed a few weeks ago.”

“We’ve talk a lot about what we are demanding from our officers in our communities,” Bottoms continued. “We’ve protested, we’ve demonstrated, we’ve been angry, we’ve cried, we’ve demanded action. We’ll now we’re demanding action for Secoriea Turner and for all of the other people who were shot in Atlanta last night and over the past few weeks because the reality is this – these aren’t police officers shooting people on the streets of Atlanta, these are members of the community shooting each other, and in this case, it is the worst possible outcome.”

“Enough is enough. Enough is enough,” Bottoms continued. “We have talked about this movement that’s happening across America in this moment in time where we have the ears and the interest of people across this country and across this globe who were saying they want to see change. … We’re fighting the enemy within when we are shooting each other up on our streets in the city and you shot and killed a baby. And it wasn’t one shooter, there were at least two shooters. An 8-year-old baby. If you want people to take us seriously, and you don’t want us to lose this movement, then we can’t lose each other.”

“You can’t blame this on a police officer, you can’t say this is about criminal justice reform. This is about some people carrying some weapons who shot up a car with an eight-year-old baby in the car,” Bottoms concluded. “We got to stop this. We are doing each other more harm than any police officer on this force. We’ve had over 75 shootings in the city over the past several weeks. You can’t blame that on APD. So, I’m just asking you to please honor this baby’s life. Please, if you know who did this, please turn them in. These people are a danger to all of us.”