Secoriea Turner was shot and killed on the 4th of July in Atlanta. (Atlanta Police Department)
ATLANTA - Attorneys for the family of Secoriea Turner will hold a news conference on Thursday morning to demand candidate Rick Jackson stop using the slain child's image and memory in political attack ads.
Family condemns political ad
What they're saying:
Attorneys Shean Williams of The Cochran Firm Atlanta and Mawuli Davis of Davis Bozeman Law say Jackson's campaign utilized Secoriea's name, likeness and story without her family's consent.
First through a mailer and now in a television advertisement, the campaign featured pictures and audio from a news conference six years ago, which her family called an exploitation of their grief.
Dispute over candidate actions
The other side:
Attorneys plan to confront what they describe as hypocrisy in Jackson using a Black child's death during unrest while embracing Donald Trump and downplaying the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
The Turner family is demanding an immediate stop to all use of Secoriea's photo, story and likeness in campaign materials, along with a public apology to her mother, Charmaine Turner.
Attack ad targets Bottoms
By the numbers:
Jackson's campaign ad targets former Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms over city leadership and police presence following civil unrest near University Avenue.
The advertisement repeatedly cites the death of 8-year-old Secoriea, blaming municipal negligence and lack of police action for her murder.
Deadky shooting at barricade
The backstory:
Secoriea was killed on July 4, 2020, on University Avenue near an improvised barricade close to a burned Wendy's where police shot Rayshard Brooks weeks earlier.
She was riding in a Jeep with her mother when gunfire erupted as the driver attempted to navigate past a blockage at Pryor Road and University Avenue.
A jury found Julian Conley guilty in September 2025, and a judge sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole plus 25 years.
Press conference scheduled Thursday
What's next:
A news conference is scheduled for Thursday at 10 a.m. in Atlanta.
FOX 5 Atlanta has reached out to both the Rick Jackson and Keisha Lance Bottoms campaigns for comment.
The Source: The information in this story was gathered from a press release issued by Ryan Julison on behalf of attorneys Shean Williams of The Cochran Firm Atlanta and Mawuli Mel Davis of Davis Bozeman Law, as well as a political advertisement transcript.