Family and friends want charges in former Atlanta assistant principal’s death

ATLANTA — Family members of Abnerd Joseph traveled to Chicago on Monday, demanding that the Cook County District Attorney move forward with charges 347 days after his death.

Joseph was a former assistant principal at KIPP Academy and was known for his ability to make connections with students.

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”Abnerd was one in a million,” said Tarra Walker Jean-Louis, a principal, and friend. “Really just a light in so many people’s lives.”

Joseph took a job working for a school in Chicago when, nearly a year ago, he was shot and killed while in a bathrobe in his condo building.

”347 days ago, my brother, my brother Abnerd, was shot and killed. As a family, one word has dominated our mind, why,” Jeanana Kelly, Joseph’s sister, said.

That night, the family says Joseph seems to have had a mental episode. The complex called the police, but while waiting for them to arrive, a fellow resident tracked him, shot him, and killed him while accompanied by building staff.

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”Abner needed someone with just a little empathy, but that night, he was surrounded by the opposite,” Rayne Belcher, Joseph’s other sister, said.

”We know who shot him, we know when he shot him, we know how he shot him, he shot him seven times in his apartment building in his robe in his boxers,” Walker Jean-Louis said.

However, despite knowing who shot Joseph, the matter is still under investigation while family and friends feel stuck in limbo.

”The wound remains open. There has never been time for it to begin to heal because we feel that justice has not been brought,”  Walker Jean-Louis said.

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