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Family hopes billboard will help solve man's murder

ATLANTA, Ga. — The family of a murdered southeast Atlanta man, along with Crime Stoppers, plans to unveil new billboards highlighting the crime in the hopes it will help police solve it.

A gunman murdered Patrick Cotrona, and shot a friend, as they walked home from an East Atlanta Village bar in May 2013. At the time, Atlanta police thought the crime could be connected to a series of other violent incidents in southeast Atlanta.

Cotrona's murder sparked outrage among the Southeast Atlanta neighborhood, and police moved in quickly with added patrols.

But a year later, the crime remains unsolved. So now, the Cotrona family along with Crime Stoppers will use billboards and posters strategically located around the area reminding people of the up to $25,000 reward and the police sketches of persons of interest. The billboards will be unveiled Thursday.

Cotrona's picture still hangs on the mirror by Eddie Davis' chair at the First Class Barber Shop on Flat Shoals Road.

"It affected the community kind of rough," said Davis. "A lot of things started closing early. People started going home early. The billboards will do real good."

"It was just very shocking," said Southeast Atlanta resident Robby Stiles. "I think (the billboards) could only remind people that we need to be looking for these guys and maybe jog someone's memory about it."