Local

Friends, family look to community to help solve fatal shooting

ATLANTA — Ten days after the slaying of a southwest Atlanta business man, his family and friends are pleading for community help in solving the crime.

Terry Porter was found shot to death in his front lawn on South Gordon Street Nov. 12.

His cellphone and 2006 Range Rover were stolen. Police later found his vehicle in a midtown Apartment complex.

More than 40 people gathered Wednesday evening in the same yard where Porter was slain.

"This is some serious, serious stuff and it has to stop," Porter's brother Levi Bias told the crowd.

Porter owned several businesses, including an assisted living facility. Friends said he stood 6 foot 7 inches and was no easy target for an apparent robber.

"I don't think he knew who he had taken from us. He could have taken anyone else but he took someone that was actually doing something for himself for the community," Bias said.

Among those in the crowd were a police detective and Atlanta City Council member Michael Julian Bond.

"If we are not free to come out of our own doors and get in our own vehicles and go about our own lives then none of us our free," Bond said.

Atlanta police have released surveillance video of a man seen walking through a convenience store. The unidentified man was driving Porter's stolen SUV.

Detectives said they want to find the man and question him. He is not named as a suspect in the case.

Porter's friends said it's a crime that needs to be solved and will only be figured out with the help of the community.

"It's Terry's blood now, but the blood is on all of our hands if we don't do something about it," friend Sunshine Lewis told the crowd.