APD off-duty officer arrested after man shot to death outside bar during birthday party

SOUTH FULTON, Ga. — An off-duty Atlanta police officer has been arrested after police said a man was shot and killed outside of a South Fulton bar during a birthday party.

Sources tell Channel 2′s Ashli Lincoln that Officer Melvin Potter fired his weapon after getting into an argument with a customer at Harold’s Chicken and Ice Bar and Nikki’s Smoking Room on Old National Highway.

Potter was attending the birthday party of a South Fulton Police Officer.

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The man, identified as Devon Anderson, 38, died at the scene.

Atlanta Police Internal Affairs responded to the scene along with the City of South Fulton police. Jail records show that Potter is currently charged with obstruction.

Sources told Lincoln that he refused to cooperate with police and refused a blood test.

No other charges have been filed at this time. Atlanta Police and South Fulton are not commenting on this investigation as it’s being handled by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

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A witness who didn’t want to be identified said Potter seemed intoxicated at the time the shooting happened. She said Anderson tried to de-escalate the argument and was shot.

On Monday, multiple cars were still in the parking lot riddled with bullets.

“This is my first time seeing it,” Yolanda Colbert said when she returned to her car. “I’m in shock. I can’t believe it. I can’t drive that back to Ohio looking like that.”

This isn’t Potter’s first run-in with the law.

He was arrested on DUI charges in 2021 after failing to maintain a lane in Coweta County. Documents indicate they smell alcohol in his car, but he claimed a friend had spilled a beverage.

Potter has been with Atlanta Police since 2015.

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Clayton mother wants answers in shooting death of 14-year-old son In an email to Channel 2 Action News reporter Bryan Mims, a Clayton County Police Department spokesperson said, “We do not have any information available.”

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