MONROE COUNTY, Ga. — A man accused of shooting and paralyzing an Atlanta Police Officer is speaking for the first time as he could possibly be released on parole soon.
David Timothy Moore shot Officer J.J. Biello during an armed robbery at a restaurant in 1987. Biello was left paralyzed and died in 2019.
Now, Moore is telling Channel 2 Action News that he deserves to go free. Biello’s family says he needs to stay behind bars. Something echoed by current Atlanta Police Chief Darin Scheirbaum, who said Biello gave his life in the line of duty and opposes Moore’s release.
Channel 2 investigative reporter Mark Winne went to Monroe County, where he spoke exclusively on Tuesday with Moore inside the Burrus Correctional Training Center.
“Where our viewers can look in your eyes and hear the timber in your voice. Are you sorry for shooting Detective J.J. Bielo?” Winne asked Moore.
“The simple answer is yes, but to give you an idea of the sincerity, there has not been a day that has went by that I have not felt eternally trapped by the guilt. The pain and the remorse of what I did to Mr. Biello,” Moore said.
“Are you sorry for what you did? Or are you sorry for the consequences to yourself?” Winne asked Moore.
“Both,” Moore said.
“I’d say there’s not a part of my life that wasn’t impacted by my dad getting shot, my dad being paralyzed,” son Ross Biello said in an interview earlier this week.
Moore said he robbed Provino’s Restaurant in 1987 because he was angry about how he was fired about a year earlier, but he now admits that he fired the shots that left J.J. Biello a quadriplegic. Officer Biello was working an off-duty job at the restaurant when he interrupted the robbery.
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“You denied at trial that you shot J.J. Bielo, correct?” Winne asked Moore.
“Yes,” Moore said.
“Do you now admit that you shot Detective J.J. Biello?” Winne asked Moore.
“I do,” Moore said.
Moore said his interview with Winne was the first time he’s spoken publicly and admitted to his crimes, that at trial he claimed it wasn’t him.
He said he’s speaking now because it’s time the story was told, and he’s been tentatively granted parole.
“Has the state of Georgia punished me for that crime? And even the one that happened after that, where I got the manslaughter charge? Absolutely. I feel, absolutely. But not to the detriment or to the mitigation of what I did. On April the 15th, 1987. That happened. I can’t change that,” Moore said.
“Timothy Moore’s actions are horrific, and I would find there’s no reason to believe that he’s had any ability to change that in any contribution to society,” Ross Biello said.
Ross Biello said the family is adamantly opposed to parole for Moore.
“This wasn’t an instance that happened almost 40 years ago, when we had a time to get over it. This was something that we lived every single day. My dad was in immense physical pain, emotional pain,” Ross Biello said.
Moore said he’s 56 now and was 17 when he shot J.J. Biello, and he changed after converting to Islam in 1997.
Moore acknowledged the prosecution maintained at the trial in which he was convicted that after shooting Detective Biello, initially, he came back to him and fired the final shot into his throat, which rendered him a quadriplegic
But Moore denies it happened that way.
“I did not stand over Mr. Biello or any way try to even take another shot,” Moore said.
Moore said he’s a mentor in prison and wants to mentor youth on the outside and work with crime prevention and re-entry.
“I feel like I have an obligation when I get out to give back by trying to stop younger people, especially younger people from doing, making the same mistakes that I made,” Moore said.
A parole board statement says in part: “The offender received a tentative grant on February 26th.”
It adds: “The board sent correspondence to the district attorney and the offender, opening a 90-day period to receive information.”
The statement said following that 90-day period, the board will make a final decision regarding possible parole.
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