Usef Bell was 35 years old when he was killed in Atlanta on Friday, May 27, 2016, the start of the Memorial Day weekend. 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 Usef Bell has been made public.
No news story about his killing, 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 does appear on an official list. After the year ended, the Atlanta Police Department released a list of all of its unsolved homicides from 2016 in response to an open records request from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and "May 27: Usef Bell, 35" was among the 51 names. Being on that list means that a year after his death, police themselves still counted the case as unsolved.
Searches for his name turn up mostly unrelated material, including recollections of a different person with a similar name from an earlier era of Atlanta's history. That has made it harder to find any trace of the man who died in 2016.
The location recorded in the Post's database places his death in west Atlanta, on the city's Westside west of downtown. A holiday weekend brings people outdoors and to cookouts and gatherings, and people who lived in that area at the time may remember the police activity that followed his death.
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. 2016 was a year when killings rose in many large American cities.
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 Usef Bell could be found in news archives or public records. More than 10 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who knew Usef Bell, saw him at the start of Memorial Day weekend 2016, 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.
