Former Atlanta police officer Sung Kim made headlines in 2022 when he was indicted by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis over the fatal shooting of 21-year-old Jimmy Atchison.

However, that case came to an end this week when a federal judge dismissed all of the charges that Kim faced. 

Judge calls evidence of self-defense "overwhelming"

According to Fox News, U.S. District Judge Michael Brown wrote in his ruling on Tuesday that "the evidence for self-defense" in Kim's actions is "overwhelming."

The judge went so far as to remark that "it is hard to understand how Georgia could have brought these charges in the first place, much less continued with them over the two and a half years since."

Brown recalled how Kim was serving as a member of the FBI Atlanta Violent Crime Task Force in 2019 when he attempted to apprehend Atchison.

Atchison fled and was subsequently discovered by Kim hiding in a closet under a pile of clothes in a woman's apartment, at which time the officer "pointed his gun at Mr. Atchison and yelled ‘show us your hands,’ ‘don’t move,’ or something along those lines."

Judge cites doctrine of Supremacy Clause immunity

"Mr. Atchison said nothing in response," Atchison wrote. "Instead, he suddenly and rapidly moved one of his hands -- or potentially both of his hands ‘clamped together’ -- from underneath the clothes towards Defendant’s face/chest area," it continued.

"Thinking Mr. Atchison had a gun and was going to shoot, Defendant fired a single shot that killed him," the judge continued.

In addition to concluding that Kim acted in self-defense, Brown also pointed to "the doctrine of Supremacy Clause immunity."

It provides that "a state cannot prosecute a federal officer if (1) the officer was ‘in the performance of an act which he [was] authorized by federal law to do as part of his duty,’ and (2) ‘what the officer did was no more than what was necessary and proper for him to do.'"

Georgia NAACP calls ruling "a threat to civil rights"

Don Samuel is Kim's attorney, and he welcomed Brown's decision, telling WSB-TV, "It is hard to celebrate when a young man died; but there is no doubt that the decision of the Fulton County DA’s office to compound the tragedy by prosecuting Sung Kim was an inexcusable abuse of prosecutorial discretion."

However, the judge's ruling was immediately met with condemnation in a statement put out by the Georgia NAACP, which called on Willis to file an appeal.

This ruling is not just a blow to the Atchison family's pursuit of justice--it's a threat to civil rights and public safety across the nation," Georgia NAACP president Gerald A. Griggs declared.