"Georgia's political future is being shaped by black women," the Atlanta-Journal Constitution declared on Thursday after former Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms became the Democratic nominee for the Georgia governor's race earlier this week.
"A seismic political shift is underway in Georgia that is impossible to ignore. The rise of Black female elected officials within the Democratic Party is not simply a moment — it is a movement," the op-ed reads. "Tuesday’s primary elections confirmed what many of us have witnessed building over the last decade: Black women are becoming the most powerful and effective political force in Georgia politics."
Nowhere does it mention the little girl who will never have the opportunity to grow up to become a black woman herself, thanks to Bottoms' poor leadership. While the former mayor was celebrating the advancement of her political career this week, that little girl lay buried in the ground, forever eight years old.
Secoriea Turner should have started third grade in August 2020. Instead, on July 4 of that year, her life was taken from her. She was riding in the back of an SUV with her mother and a family friend. While her mother was attempting to navigate what had become a chaotic and criminal scene at the Wendy's at University Avenue in Atlanta, a man named Julian Jamal Conley shot the little girl in the back. She died later at the hospital.
Something Secoriea Turner will never get to be. https://t.co/DDjfoxCFPv
— SarahDownSouth (@SarahDownSouth) May 20, 2026
Last year, Conley was convicted of murder, aggravated assault, and gang-related charges and sentenced to life plus 25 years in prison without the possibility of parole.
It's easy to say, it's Atlanta. It's a big city. These things happen. But this wasn't a random street crime. It was the result of negligence and pure anarchy that happened under Bottoms' leadership.
We all remember the summer of 2020. It started in Minneapolis — why is it always Minneapolis? — with the death of George Floyd, and suddenly, protests and riots were popping up all over the country.
Atlanta was no different. As Erick Erickson wrote on his Substack a few days ago, Bottoms has the "ignoble distinction of being the first Mayor of Atlanta to see the city burn since Mayor James Montgomery Calhoun watched Sherman march through and torch the place."
The situation at this particular Wendy's escalated on June 12 of that year when a man named Rayshard Brooks was asleep in his car in the restaurant's drive-through lane. Atlanta PD officers found that he was too drunk to drive and attempted to arrest him. He fought them, ended up grabbing one of their tasers, and firing at them. He also punched one of the officers before running away, but as he did, he turned back and fired the taser again. One of the officers shot Brooks. He survived, but he died following surgery. The officers were exonerated.
The death of Brooks, who was black, sparked an intense, fresh wave of riots that day. By June 13, rioters had set the Wendy's on fire, as well as nearby vehicles. For the next several weeks, rioters occupied the area surrounding the restaurant and even began blocking the roads with barricades. Some of those involved were armed, and some had gang affiliations. Conley was a member of the Bloods. There were other shootings before Secoriea's. City leadership allowed it to fester, and it essentially turned into an autonomous zone with self-appointed "security" that decided who could and could not pass.
Remember the Atlanta Wendy's arson during the 2020 riots?
— Phil Holloway ✈️ (@PhilHollowayEsq) June 27, 2025
Fani Willis gave plea deals to Chisom Kingston and Natalie White
They were sentenced to:
5 years probation
$500 fine
150 hours community service
Their records will be wiped clean if they don't violate probation pic.twitter.com/A7rGOzRcbf
That precious eight-year-old girl and her family's only crime was that they'd supposedly gotten off on the wrong exit and were trying to get back to their destination. They were not allowed to pass.
As the Georgia governor’s race begins to take shape and Keisha Lance Bottoms emerges as the leading Democrat, let’s not forget the name Secoriea Turner.
— Angela Stanton King (@theAuntieAngie) May 3, 2026
After the shooting of Rayshard Brooks, Keisha Bottoms allowed armed groups to take over the intersection of University Avenue… pic.twitter.com/zBTNHv72bL
As I said, this happened on June 12. The Wendy's burned on June 13. Secoriea was killed on July 4. As the occupation of the area grew, local residents and business owners called on the city to do something about it. Bottoms knew of the growing danger and even wanted to have the site cleared, but reports revealed that she avoided doing that because members of the Atlanta city council and various activists told her they wanted to have more negotiations and "dialogue."
Sounds like strong leadership to me. That's who I want running my state — the person who knows what's right but cowers to "activists" and lets them take over her city.
When Secoriea was killed, Bottoms held a press conference the next day. "You shot and killed a baby," she said, as if her actions played no role in this situation at all. She then ordered the site to be dismantled, but encouraged the Black Lives Matter protesters to keep up their fight... peacefully.
The year 2020 ended up being a violent one for the United States, but especially for Atlanta under Bottoms' "leadership." Homicide rates were up 58% that year. She embraced the idea of defunding the police through "reallocation of resources" toward "community development and alternatives to just criminalizing responses toward behavior." Police shortages became the norm as officers with low morale began walking away from the Atlanta PD, and calls to the department were delayed or stacked.
When Bottoms' term was over in 2022, she opted not to run for re-election. To many voters, it was a relief. Others felt she abandoned the city. She seemed more determined to raise her own profile, taking a job with the Joe Biden administration. Either way, the damage had been done.
While Bottoms was off seeking higher-profile positions for herself, Charmaine Turner and Secoriey Williamson were trying to figure out their future without their little girl at their side. In 2021, they filed a lawsuit against Bottoms and other city leaders, claiming they allowed armed vigilantes to roam the streets, tying the child's death to their alleged negligence.
"Secoriea should be here. None of what we're doing will ever bring our baby back. Her life is priceless," Charmaine said of her daughter. "We deserve justice. Someone needs to be held accountable."
Here we are, six years after the little girl's murder, and four years after Bottoms got the heck out of Georgia for Washington, D.C. I guess she's figured enough time has passed that she can just waltz right into this state and pretend none of it ever happened — that she didn't let rioters attempt to take over and destroy the city, that she played no role in the needless death of a child.
But Georgia voters remember.
"Keisha Lance Bottoms is a soft-on-crime lunatic who defunded law enforcement, let Atlanta burn to the ground, and abandoned Georgians with the crime crisis she created. She sided with radical activists over public safety once, and Georgians won’t let her do it again," Emma Hall, an RNC spokesperson, told PJ Media.
Let's hope she's right. I'm going to admit here that I don't think Bottoms is a bad person. She actually has some qualities that I find admirable in a human being. But she's proven on one of the biggest stages in Georgia that she doesn't have what it takes to be a leader, and our state deserves better than that.
Secoriea Turner's legacy deserves better than that.
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