On the night of August 2, 2022, LaMarkus D. Griffin Sr., 36, a Black male, was killed in southwest Atlanta after gunfire shattered the quiet at Wilson Mill Park off Bakers Ferry Road. Police were called to the park shortly after 10 p.m. on a report of a person shot, and when officers arrived they found him inside the park with multiple gunshot wounds.
He was pronounced dead at the scene, turning a neighborhood park into a homicide scene and leaving residents shaken by yet another burst of violence in a place families knew as a community gathering spot. In the days that followed, news reports described neighbors and local leaders voicing alarm about repeated safety concerns in and around the park, while investigators worked to identify who was responsible and why Griffin had been targeted there.
For a long stretch, the case appeared to move with the heavy stillness that often follows an unsolved killing. Public reporting on Atlanta's homicide victims indicated that no arrest had been made in the case, and the killing remained one more open wound in the city's 2022 toll. The location itself became part of the story: Wilson Mill Park was later cited by Atlanta police in broader discussions about park safety, with the department saying patrols would be increased in city parks after homicides there and at another Atlanta park only days later. That backdrop made Griffin's death feel not only personal to his family, but emblematic of a wider fear in southwest Atlanta, where residents were left wondering how a public park had become the setting for such a deadly ambush.
The investigation eventually produced arrests. Atlanta police said that on October 9, 2023, 24-year-old Jordan Tate was taken into custody for his involvement in the August 2, 2022 homicide at 300 Wilson Mill Road SW. Police said Tate was charged with murder, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, and theft by taking. Then, on September 14, 2025, investigators, assisted by Cobb County police, arrested a second suspect, 23-year-old Jaylan Pryor. According to Atlanta police, Pryor was charged with murder, aggravated assault, and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, and was transported to the Fulton County Jail. As of the reporting located, those arrests marked the major public developments in the case; I did not find reliable published reports showing a trial verdict or conviction tied to Griffin's killing.
