ATLANTA — The family of an officer shot in 1987 is speaking out against the possible parole of the man convicted in the case.
Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum said Officer J.J. Biello died more than three decades after he was shot.
He gave his life in the line of duty, earning a pennant on the APD flag and his badge on the agency’s memorial wall.
That’s why Schierbaum said he opposes parole for David Timothy Moore.
“It’s pain that you live with every day,” Biello’s wife, Barbara Biello, said.
“I’m not sure that I still sleep good nights through some of those things stick with you,” son Ross Biello said.
Schierbaum said. Biello died in 2019 as a result of wounds he sustained 32 years earlier... In 1987, he was shot while interrupting an armed robbery at a restaurant where he was working an extra job, eventually leaving him a quadriplegic.
“The medical examiner ruled that were it not for the injuries that Detective Biello received in 1987, he would not have passed in 2019,” Schierbaum told Channel 2 investigative reporter Mark Winne.
The chief said he joins Biello’s friends and family in opposing parole for Moore -- sentenced to life-plus for armed robbery and aggravated assault.
“I’m very much against it because I think he’s a danger to anyone that he comes in contact with,” Barbara Biello said.
“100% opposed,” Ross Biello said.
“Vehemently opposed. This man would pose a big-time threat to the community,” said retired DEA Agent Larry Sprout, who was J.J. Biello’s partner at APD in the 70s.
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He said they remained like brothers ever since.
A State Board of Pardons and Paroles letter about Moore to Barbara Biello, provided to us by APD, said:
“The offender has been recommended for the Georgia Department of Corrections work release program.”
It adds: “Should the offender successfully complete work release, the offender will be released to community supervision.”
Ross Biello said he was eight when the family’s life changed forever, but his dad continued a remarkable life in his wheelchair, including four terms on the Cherokee County Commission, part of that time as chair.
“Don’t ever underestimate. He would have done far more if he was able to. So, he was accomplished for the situation that he was in,” Ross Biello said.
“My husband was a very strong person,” Wife Barbara Biello said.
A parole board statement said in part:
“The offender received a tentative grant on February 26,” adding, “The board sent correspondence to the district attorney and the offender, opening a 90-day period to receive information.
“Following the 90-day period, the board will make a final decision regarding possible parole
“He became parole eligible on his life sentence on May 1, 1994. He has been considered multiple times and denied parole, including being denied 5 times since 2018.”
“I later found out that he had killed an inmate while incarcerated,” Sprout told Winne.
A court document indicates Moore was 17 when convicted in 1987, but in 1989, Moore was involved in an “inmate disturbance,” in which Moore alleges 20 inmates attacked three inmates. He stabbed an attacker and pleaded guilty to manslaughter.
A letter to the parole board from Schierbaum goes into detail about the situation.
“Granting parole under these circumstances would, in my view, send the wrong message regarding the value we place on the lives of those who serve and protect,” Schierbaum wrote.
A court document suggests Moore maintained that juvenile offenders sentenced to life with the possibility of parole deserve a chance to show they have matured.
Attorney David Wolfe said he represented Moore when he was tried for the shooting of J.J. Biello, and in 1987, parole eligibility for a life sentence came after seven years served.
Wolfe said he’s had no contact with him in recent years, but depending on his record in prison, he’s earned the right to parole.
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