Army veteran shot, killed outside bar; family seeks help in finding killer

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DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — A family says their loved one survived three tours of duty fighting for this country overseas but couldn’t survive a night out in the metro area.

Someone shot and killed 42-year-old Marcus Williams outside a business he visited often.

Williams’ sister says this has shattered her life.

“He wasn’t just my baby brother. He was my baby. He was my baby,” Chendra Atkins told Channel 2’s Tom Jones.

Atkins finds it hard to believe he is gone. She says he loved serving his country. He fought in Afghanistan twice and also in Iraq.

“He survived that to come home to be taken away,” she said.

It was Valentine’s Day around 3:45 a.m. Atkins says her brother was at a DeKalb County establishment called Petty Bones on Stone Mountain Lithonia road.

“Detective saying it was an altercation between him and this other person,” his sister said.

Police say the gunman shot Williams multiple times and got away.

“They’re telling us they have interviewed some people. But people are not coming forward.” Atkins explained.

“I don’t know the shooter,” said Petty Bones co-owner Darren Petty told Jones.

He said he was there that night but didn’t see the shooting.

Petty says Williams got into an altercation with a man in the parking lot after the business closed. Then he says Williams asked to be let back in to use the restroom.

He says that’s when the shooter made his move.

“And he just rushed in and shot the guy,” he said.

Petty says he has cooperated with police. Even sharing video from his cameras.

“I really want the guy to get caught. I mean that’s terrible,” he said.

Atkins wants anyone who knows what happened to contact police.

“Just come forward. Please come forward. My brother was loved,” she said.

DeKalb County Police say they have interviewed witnesses and collected evidence at the scene.

They are asking anyone with information to give them a call. The department says you send an anonymous tip by texting DKPD to 847411 followed by your tip.

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