On the night of February 16, 1980, Alfred Morris Johnson Jr., a 31-year-old Black man, off-duty Atlanta Police officer and U.S. Marine veteran, was working an off-duty security shift at the Big Buy Food Store on Flat Shoals Avenue in Atlanta. Two masked men entered in an armed robbery; one wielded a sawed-off shotgun and the other a handgun. Johnson confronted the shotgun-wielding assailant and wrestled for control of the weapon. He was shot in the abdomen during the struggle and was then shot again as he lay wounded. The robbers stole money and food stamps and fled. Johnson was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital and died of his injuries, leaving a wife and two daughters aged five and two.

Investigators identified two gunmen and a female getaway driver within a couple of years, and a cellmate informant led police to a pistol that was forensically matched to a slug recovered from Johnson’s body. A proposed deal for the informant’s cooperation was not pursued by the district attorney at the time, and no charges were filed.