Police: Dekalb activist’s son shot while checking flat tires

Atlanta police say an unidentified gunman fatally shot the son of a prominent activist with 11 bullets. His father believes it was a targeted killing.

Police Officer Lisa Bender tells The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that 34-year-old Justin Edwards of Decatur was driving home with his girlfriend Saturday night when two tires went flat and he pulled into a parking lot to check them out. Witnesses told police that an unidentified suspect approached, fired shots and then ran away. His girlfriend wasn’t hurt.

Police say the motive remains unclear, but the victim’s father, Joel Edwards, says he believes someone slashed his tires intending to kill him. The DeKalb County activist tells WSB-TV that “this was a hit, for what reason I don’t know.”

Justin Edwards was a logistics manager at Lockheed Martin.