Family mourns lost son and father killed in Atlanta

ATLANTA - The Wilson family held a vigil Tuesday evening to honor their late son Willie Wilson III who was shot and killed in Downtown Atlanta.

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“He was the life of the party,” Wilson’s sister Ashley Wilson said. “We’d be standing here, and you'd hear him up the street. You took someone that means so much and it hurts, it hurts.”

Wilson leaves behind three young children. His family says he was working hard to get his family into a better apartment away from the troubled neighborhood they were staying in near Pine Street and Courtland Avenue.

Atlanta Police are still investigating who is behind Wilson’s murder. Police said a driver in a red Mercedes SUV pulled up to Wilson and fired a single shot, killing him.

“The security guard called and said he'd been shot, that he stumbled over to her holding his chest and just fell,” said Wilson’s wife Shanika McCoy.

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McCoy said she believed her husband knew his attacker because she said he approached the car before being shot. “I wanna say he knew him because he never would've walked up on that car,” Shanika McCoy said.

Wilson’s father Willie Wilson Jr. said he is confident that justice will be served.

“You can run all you want, but you still have to remember that you took somebody from my heart, which is my son,” Wilson said.

The family is collecting donations to give Willie Wilson III a proper burial. Those that wish to donate can do so through the Willie Wilson III Memorial, care of the Raleigh Rucker Funeral Home located at 2199 Candler Road, Decatur GA 30032.

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