Atlanta Beltline stabbing death: Suspect mentally ill, thinks he’s always under attack, family says

“We are deeply, unreservedly sorry,” the family wrote.

[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]

In the lengthy statement, Hamby’s family says he lives with a severe mental illness that causes him to believe “he is under constant, terrifying attack from bystanders who are simply walking near him.”

They say that Hamby recently took a samurai sword into a Chamblee elementary school, thinking that it was necessary because he needed to charge his phone.

They add that he has a mental condition stopping him from being able to recognize his own illness, making it impossible for him to take medication on his own.

TRENDING STORIES:

• Atlanta Beltline stabbing death: What happens when suspects have lengthy criminal history?
• Atlanta Beltline stabbing death: Suspect arrested at least 10 times before, including knife attack
• Mugshot released of man accused of stabbing person to death on Atlanta Beltline
• 29-year-old man dies in stabbing on Atlanta Beltline, convicted felon detained

Hamby has been arrested more than 30 times in his lifetime, leading to many asking why he was out on the streets at all.

His family says they have been asking the same question for years. They say that he has been part of a system that relies on a short-term incarceration.

They are asking Georgia lawmakers to pass legislation that would allow families of those with “severe, treatment-resistant psychiatric illnesses who have a history of weapons or school-safety violations” to make decisions to protect their loved one.

“We cannot undo the horror of yesterday. But we refuse to let the system continue this broken cycle for other families who are currently begging for help before a tragedy strikes,” they wrote.

You can read the full statement below.

<b>To the Atlanta Community, Neighbors, and Leadership,</b>&nbsp;

We are writing this letter with a profound sense of heartbreak, grief, and accountability. Yesterday, a horrific act of violence shattered our community on the Atlanta Beltline. The pain inflicted upon the victim, their family, and every person who witnessed or was impacted by this tragedy is immeasurable. As the family of the suspect, Johnathan Hamby, we want to say directly to the victim’s family and to all of Atlanta: we are deeply, unreservedly sorry.&nbsp;

Our family is trapped in the agonizing reality of knowing that we spent years desperately fighting a broken system to prevent this exact tragedy from happening.&nbsp;

Johnathan lives with a severe mental illness (SMI) that causes active psychosis. In his reality, he is under constant, terrifying attack from bystanders who are simply walking near him. He cannot rationally process the world, nor can he recognize his own illness – a clinical reality known as anosognosia, which affects up to 50% of individuals with severe schizophrenia or bipolar disorders. Because of this, court orders instructing him to simply take his medication or follow rules are impossible for his compromised brain to execute.&nbsp;

The question our community is asking is entirely justified:&nbsp;<i>Why was a convicted felon with 30+ arrest cycles on the street, and why did he have weapons?</i>&nbsp;This is a question our family has been asking for years.&nbsp;

He was on the street because our current legal system relies on a revolving door of short-term incarceration rather than long-term structural intervention. Johnathan has a history of over 30 prior arrests, and a majority of these as individual acts should have served as a high-risk warning to officials. For example, he recently took a three-foot samurai saber into a Chamblee elementary school under the delusional premise that this act was required because he simply needed to charge his cellular phone. The system treated this clear, high-risk warning sign as a standard misdemeanor. He was briefly jailed, released, and put back on the street without stabilized care.&nbsp;

During these prior arrest cycles, our family begged the courts to intervene. We did not ask to strip his humanity away; we asked for a legal mechanism to step in and save him – and the community – from his delusions. We begged the courts to establish a&nbsp;<b>Structured Decision-Making (SDM) plan</b>.&nbsp;

An SDM plan is a framework society already uses successfully to protect individuals with advanced dementia or Alzheimer’s disease. When a medical condition strips a person of their executive functioning, the law allows a willing, accountable family unit to step in and manage high-risk decisions. For Johnathan, an SDM plan would have legally empowered our family to prevent him from purchasing weapons, secure his housing, and enforce treatment compliance&nbsp;<i>before</i>&nbsp;a crisis occurred. Instead, the courts repeatedly dismissed our pleas, citing strict legal thresholds regarding immediate danger.&nbsp;

Johnathan’s case is a tragic symptom of a statewide and national failure. Data from the Treatment Advocacy Center shows that a tiny fraction of individuals with untreated SMI cycle continuously through the justice system – with just 10% of these “super-utilizer” cases accounting for up to 70% of psychiatric emergency and jail intake resources. Our current laws offer only two extremes: brief jail stays that treat psychiatric illness as a crime, or total guardianship, which is incredibly difficult to secure and often resisted by the courts.&nbsp;

We cannot undo the horror of yesterday. But we refuse to let the system continue this broken cycle for other families who are currently begging for help before a tragedy strikes.&nbsp;

We are calling on Georgia lawmakers to introduce and pass legislation establishing a&nbsp;<b>Family-Led Structured Decision-Making Act</b>. This law would create a specific legal pathway in Georgia courts for individuals with severe, treatment-resistant psychiatric illnesses who have a history of weapons or school-safety violations. Georgia can easily implement this framework because the legal foundation already exists. By simply bridging our state’s current Assisted Outpatient Treatment (AOT) courts with the Structured Decision-Making blueprints used across the country, Georgia can lead the nation. When a willing, capable family is present, the courts must have the power to mandate an SDM proxy. This allows accountability to be placed where it belongs – in a structured, human-managed plan that controls high-risk variables like weapon acquisition and treatment adherence.&nbsp;

Our family tried to build a dam with our bare hands to protect the community from the tragedy that occurred yesterday, but the system washed it away. We ask our community and our legislators to join us in building a real legal framework that protects the public, empowers desperate families, and prevents another preventable tragedy from destroying innocent lives and shattering our communities again.&nbsp;

We are providing this statement on the condition of anonymity. Please do not attempt to publish our names or contact details. We want the focus to remain strictly on the apology to the victim and his family and the greater Atlanta community, as well as the proposed legislative solution to prevent a similar tragedy in the future.&nbsp;

With deepest sorrow and a commitment to change to prevent a similar future tragedy,&nbsp;

—  The Hamby Family

[SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]