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Two Black Atlanta families are grieving the loss of their two sons. Jimmy Atchison and D’ettrick Griffin both died by the hands of the police withing a week of each other according to NBC News.

Atchinson’s aunt, Tammie Featherstone claims her nephew’s death was put “on the back burner because of the Super Bowl.”

The family attorney Tanya Miller believes Atchinson’s death should be taking priority the football game this coming Sunday.

“It shouldn’t be forgotten that the shooting happened just before the Super Bowl, at a time when people have been seeing football as a symbol of protest in light of Colin Kaepernick bringing attention to police brutality and injustice,” Miller said.

However, a police spokesman denied the claims.

Atchinson who was only 21-years-old died on January 22 after a federal task force tried to arrest him for an armed robbery warrant The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. Atchinson encountered the officers, and attempted to flee the scene.

FBI spokesman Kevin Rowson said, “He jumped out of a window of one of the apartments, jumped down a couple of floors. There was a foot chase that ensued into another apartment building, into another apartment. That’s where the suspect was confronted by a task force officer on the (Atlanta Metro Major Offender) task force, and the suspect was eventually shot and killed.”

However, Atchinson’s family believes the father of two was shot in the face while he was hiding in a closet and was unarmed. An autopsy will be performed to determine how he died. The incident is currently under investigation and the officer who killed Atchinson has not been identified and is currently on leave.

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Griffin died on January 15 after he allegedly tried to steal a plainclothes officer’s car at a gas station, according to WXIA. The officer fired his firearm at the 18-year-old tried to drive away. Griffin’s family also believed he was unarmed.

“Just because this officer was upset that somebody may have offended him or jumped in his car – whatever actually occurred – we see no grounds for the officer to have emptied his gun into the body of D’ettrick Griffin,” said family attorney Jonathan Hibbert.

Griffin’s father Courtney Griffin said he was unable to see his son until the morning after his death even through he rushed to the scene.

“I just got a phone call that said my son was up the street and was shot by a cop,” Griffin said. “I got up, I called (his mom) and my first thought was, ‘just get there.’ I got to the scene … I was just two minutes away. I asked all of the officers. I showed them pictures of my son. They kept saying, ‘we can’t tell you. We don’t know.’ I went around the whole block asking different officers and they never told me, for four hours they never told me. My son was sitting in the cold for four hours, dead for four hours, and nothing? It took my soul away from me.”

Griffin’s mother, said her son was four months away from graduating high school and had plans to be an aviation mechanic.

The death is currently being investigated by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

Mothers of the Movement mentioned Atchinson’s death in their statement declining Jermaine Dupri’s invitation to his Super Bowl Live event.

“Last year, Former NFL QB Colin Kaepernick lost his job for taking a knee, a peaceful protest, against police brutality in black communities,” the statement reads. “It is only January 30, 2019, and there have already been 56 people killed by police in America, including 21-year-old Jimmy Atchison in historic southwest Atlanta. The father of two was shot in the face. He was unarmed.”

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