Walter Cullins was 18 years old when he was killed in Atlanta on Thursday, November 15, 2007. The Atlanta Police Department investigated his death, and the Washington Post's homicide database, which tracked killings in Atlanta from 2007 through 2017, lists it as a homicide that remained open with no arrest.
Almost nothing about how he died has been made public. No news story describing the killing could be found for this account.
The record does not say how he was killed, what time of day it happened, whether he was attacked indoors or on the street, whether he knew his attacker, whether anyone else was hurt, or whether he died at the scene or later at a hospital.
His case is listed in the Project Cold Case database, a national registry of unsolved homicides, which records it as a murder reported on November 15, 2007, gives his age as 18 and directs tips to the Atlanta Police Department. Other online cold-case pages that carry the Post's record also list his case as an active, unsolved murder.
A family-placed death notice in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in 2007 announced celebration of life services for a Mr. Walter Lagrayer Cullins Sr., and the newspaper's obituary archive lists only one person named Walter Cullins. The notice appears to refer to him, although the available portion does not give an age. If so, the "Sr." may mean that, even at 18, he already had a son named for him.
Walter Cullins's name also appears in a 2018 Washington Post investigation that listed thousands of homicide victims in major American cities whose killings had not led to an arrest.
His age stands out most. At 18, Walter Cullins was barely an adult, the age of a high school senior or recent graduate. Classmates, teammates and friends his age, now in their mid-30s, may still remember where he was and who he was with in mid-November 2007. The location recorded in the database places his death in southeast Atlanta, an area of residential streets and apartment complexes south and east of downtown, where neighbors may remember the police activity that Thursday.
Atlanta, the capital of Georgia and the center of a metro area of more than 5 million people, recorded roughly 75 to 130 homicides a year between 2007 and 2017. Most victims were young men killed with guns, and many of those killings never led to an arrest. Cases with few public details often faded from view quickly.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Walter Cullins could be found in news archives or public records. More than 18 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who went to school with Walter Cullins, knew his family, or heard talk afterward of what happened to him, may be able to help. Even a small detail, such as a name overheard, a car seen leaving the area or a conversation remembered, can help detectives move a case forward. Anyone with information can call the Atlanta Police Department Homicide Unit at 404-546-4235, or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers Greater Atlanta at 404-577-TIPS (404-577-8477), which may pay a cash reward for information that leads to an arrest.
