Family of Secoriea Turner demands Rick Jackson campaign take down ad about 8-year-old's death
The family of an 8-year-old girl shot and killed during protests in Atlanta in June 2020 is asking Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Jackson to stop using their daughter in his campaign ads.
Secoriea Turner was shot while riding in the back of a Jeep with her mother and her mother's friend on July 4, 2020, near the Wendy's restaurant where Rayshard Brooks, a 27-year-old Black man, had been killed by a white police officer weeks earlier.
The restaurant was set ablaze the night after Brooks' death, and protesters camped at the site for weeks afterward. Not far away, armed men had been occupying makeshift barricades, blocking roads and turning some drivers away. Police said the SUV Secoriea was riding in was driving near one of the barricades when at least one person shot into the vehicle.
The case has drawn widespread attention in Atlanta, where Turner's death became a flashpoint amid nationwide protests over police brutality and racial injustice following the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Last September, a jury found 25-year-old Julian Conley guilty of murder, aggravated assault and gang-related charges for Turner's killing. He was subsequently sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole plus an additional 25 years. A second man, Jerrion McKinney, received a 40-year sentence, with 20 years to serve in prison after pleading guilty to aggravated assault, gun and gang-related charges in the girl's death.
Ads posted by the Jackson campaign criticizing former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottom's handling of the situation showed photos of Turner, the 911 call, and statements by the girl's mom, Charmaine Turner, and the family's attorneys.
"In the summer of 2020, Keisha Lance Bottoms saw a crisis coming," the text included with the ad reads. "She took no action, and an innocent, 8-year old girl and her family paid the price."
At a press conference on Thursday, attorneys representing Turner's family said that Jackson's campaign was "using their pain for political gain."
Attorney Mawuli Mel Davis of Davis Bozeman Law said that the family sent a statement to Rick Jackson's campaign about photos of Turner that the family saw on mailers, calling the use of her image "pure evil."
"We sent a letter asking 'Stop. You don't have permission. Don't do this. You're hurting her. You're hurting this family,'" Davis said, "Instead of asking and responding in the way that we requested, a decision was made, and that decision we found out about yesterday, was that they have decided to not stop using their image, but to double down. Instead of not only using her image, they run a commercial."
Davis said the ads have brought pain to Charmaine Turner and her family, opening wounds that are trying to heal.
"I want you to imagine as you're sitting in your living room or your bedroom and you turn on the television, and you hear your own voice on the worst day of your life used to sell a politician," he said. "Behind the tears in the commercial is a real mother, and she is still crying."
Davis called on the campaign and TV networks to stop running the ad.
"There has to be some compassion," he said.
In a statement to CBS News Atlanta, a spokesman for the Jackson campaign responded to the press conference.
"We cannot imagine the immense pain the Turner family has gone through. They are not a political talking point. They are one of the major reasons why Rick is running - so that another family does not have to experience such a devastating tragedy as a result of Keisha Lance Bottoms' abdication of her duty," spokesman Garrison Douglas. "While she has fought against the Turner Family's wishes for more than five years, Keisha Lance Bottoms must apologize to the Turner family and encourage the City of Atlanta to settle the family's lawsuit, which rightly points out the utter negligence that led to this loss."
