Kenneth Street was 57 years old when he was killed in Atlanta on Thursday, July 26, 2012. The Atlanta Police Department investigated, 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.
Beyond his name, his age and the date of his death, almost nothing about Kenneth Street has been made public.
No news story about his killing, detailed obituary, memorial page or family fundraiser could be found for this account. He surely had family, friends and neighbors who remember who he was, but none of that has entered the public record.
Because so little has been released, even the basic circumstances remain unknown to the public. The record does not say how he was killed, whether he was attacked indoors or on the street, whether he knew his attacker, what time of day it happened, or whether he died at the scene or later at a hospital. It does not say whether investigators ever identified a suspect.
His name makes him unusually hard to trace. "Kenneth Street" is also the name of roads in Marietta, in southeast Atlanta and in many other towns, so searches are flooded with real estate listings and news items about those streets. A man named Kenneth Street who pleaded guilty in a separate shooting death in another state also turns up in searches; that case has nothing to do with the Atlanta victim and is not evidence about his death.
His age stands out. Most people killed in Atlanta in those years were young men, and a man of 57 was well past the age of most victims. Someone of his age would likely have had long ties in his neighborhood, a work history, and family who noticed when he was gone.
The location recorded in the Post's database places his death in far southwest Atlanta, well southwest of downtown. People who lived in that part of the city in late July 2012 may remember the police activity that followed his death, or may have known him by sight.
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 of those killings never led to an arrest, and the Washington Post's 2018 investigation of unsolved homicides counted Atlanta among the cities with large numbers of them. A summer killing with no public details released could slip from view within days.
The Post database itself was built for a 2018 investigation of unsolved killings in major American cities. Being listed there means that, years after the killing, the case was still counted among those for which no one had been arrested.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Kenneth Street could be found in news archives or public records. More than 14 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who knew Kenneth Street, saw him in the days before he died, 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.
