Jerry Wingfield, 29, was shot and killed outside an apartment complex at 1033 Hollywood Road in northwest Atlanta in June 2008. The Washington Post's homicide database records his death on Wednesday, June 25, 2008, while a family-placed death notice said he passed on June 24. The Atlanta Police Department Homicide Unit investigated.
According to Atlanta police homicide Detective David Coleman, Wingfield was walking from one apartment building to another when he was hit by what appeared
to be a stray bullet. Someone had fired several shots at random, and one of the shots nearly hit a baby. Coleman said the shooter had been standing in an area near the garbage bins and the trees by the front of the apartment complex.
Detectives did not believe Wingfield was the intended target. "I think that somebody was either showing off a weapon, or just randomly, recklessly shooting in this direction. I don't think it was intentional," Coleman told WSB-TV in June 2010. Nearly two years after the shooting, he said, police still had no suspects. No description of the shooter has been made public, and no specific reward amount was announced, though Crime Stoppers said tipsters could be eligible for a cash reward.
Wingfield was a father, and he was his mother's only son. "He's my only son. I have three daughters, and I asked God to give me a son and he did, and then man took him away," his mother, Dot Wingfield, told WSB-TV. "So I'm very upset and worried about it." His family placed a death notice in the Atlanta paper saying that arrangements would be announced later.
Hollywood Road runs through a residential part of northwest Atlanta, west of the city's center, lined with homes and apartment complexes. Because the shots were fired near the front of a complex where people were coming and going, neighbors, visitors and residents of nearby buildings may have heard the gunfire or seen the person holding the gun.
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 in those years were young men, and most were killed with guns. Many killings from that period never led to an arrest, and the Post's 2018 investigation counted Atlanta among the cities with large numbers of unsolved homicides. A killing by a stray bullet, with no clear connection between shooter and victim, is among the hardest kinds of case to solve.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Jerry Wingfield 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. 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. Someone who lived at or visited the Hollywood Road apartments in June 2008, or who has heard someone talk about firing shots there, may hold the answer. 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.
