ATLANTA MAN CONVICTED FOR DEADLY SHOOTING AT FAMILY GATHERING

Defendant Opens Fire Killing Two Adults, One-Year Old Boy Injured

Atlanta- Fulton County District Attorney Paul L. Howard, Jr. announces a conviction in the double homicide trial against Willie James Terrell. Terrell, age 39, was charged with multiple counts including Murder, Felony Murder, Aggravated Assault and Possession of a Firearm During the Commission of a Felony for the March 2006 murders of Anthony Thomas, 23, and Tanisha Johnson, age 25.

On the day of the incident, the victims were gathered at the defendant’s ex-girlfriend’s house for a family celebration. The defendant, Willie Terrell, had come to the home to drop off his two children. While there, he became upset with the way one of the female visitors was treating his five-year old daughter. Terrell pushed the woman, prompting victim Anthony Thomas to come to her defense. Thomas and Terrell got into a shoving match which spilled outside. The argument subsided and the men went back into the home, where Terrell retrieved an assault rifle from a closet where he had placed it a few days earlier. He turned to Anthony Thomas and said “I got something for you”. The two men struggled over the gun—the tussle once again spilling outside. Thomas was shot in the leg and the defendant then began blindly shooting towards the apartment where Tanisha Johnson, who was holding her one year old son and attempting to close the door, was standing. She was struck in the chest. The boy was shot in the arm. The mother died, but the child survived. Shortly afterwards, Defendant Terrell then fired a barrage of twelve shots at Thomas, ten of them in his back, killing him instantly. The defendant grabbed his young son from the apartment and fled the scene. He was arrested a short while later after calling 9-1-1- and confessing to ‘shooting his daughter’s family’.

Terrell was sentenced by Fulton County Superior Court Judge Craig Schwall to two consecutive life sentences and an additional 25 years to run consecutively.

Senior Assistant District Attorney Linda Dunikoski prosecuted the case with assistance from ADA Lynn Armstrong and DA Investigator Michael Green. Detective D. B. Mathis of the Atlanta Police Department led the initial investigation.

Media Contact: Yvette Brown, 404-224-0560/404-392-8867, yvette.brown@fultoncountyga.gov