Man found beaten to death blocks from famous Fox Theatre

ATLANTA — A murder in the heart of midtown Atlanta has police looking for any witnesses or cameras that can help catch the killer.

Someone beat a man to death on the sidewalk on Peachtree Street, just blocks away from the famous Fox Theatre, early Wednesday morning.

The area between 5th and 6th streets is a busy one for both tourists and locals.

The beating happened less than a block away from a QuikTrip that is open 24 hours, and three blocks from the Fox Theatre.

The victim has been identified as Moses Cooper.

On Wednesday night, Channel 2's Nefertiti Jaquez spoke to his family members, who said they had been trying to get him off the streets for years.

"It's not fair. It's hard," said his relative Nina L. Scott.

Through tears, she told Jaquez that Cooper had distanced himself from the family after his sister died of a heart attack a couple years ago.

For Scott, the loss seems unbearable. It comes a year after her brother and sister-in-law died when their plane crashed in Murray due to engine malfunction.

“It hurts so bad, I don’t know how much I can take. I just don’t know," she said.

A GoFundMe has been created to help the family with funeral expenses. You can donate here.

Channel 2's Darryn Moore was the first reporter at the scene on Peachtree Street early Wednesday morning. He saw homicide investigators in the 800 block of Peachtree Street just before 2 a.m.

The man was on the sidewalk near the Sprint store.

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The person has not yet been identified, but police told Channel 2's Steve Gehlbach he is 59 years old.

Gehlbach saw police going door-to-door to businesses on Peachtree Street to try to find video of what happened.

Police said it was a little after 2 a.m. when someone flagged down officers who were responding to a 911 call.

They found the man dead from what they said was blunt force trauma to the head.

Investigators said they have no witnesses to the crime.

Gehlbach spoke to a man who worked across the street from where he was found, and said that homeless people often sleep near the businesses in the area.

He said he was shocked that they could be the target of a deadly beating.

“It’s a pretty nice area, pretty friendly. I would say we have an issue of homelessness. They closed the place down off Pine Street, so a lot of homeless (people) have been migrating everywhere,” Keenan Harris said.

Gehlbach also sat down with a man who said he knew the victim; but had only a few interactions with him and but they had helped each other out before.

He even got a little emotional after telling Gehlbach about seeing the victim’s photo that detectives showed him.

"I've spoken briefly to him. I think we've helped each other out," he said.

Cox Media Group