MONCKS CORNER, S.C. — Long before two bullets from a police officer’s handgun tore through Anthony Hill’s chest, he had tattooed it with the words of advice that his grandfather regularly imparted to him in this small Southern city: “Be sensible.”

Last week, Mr. Hill’s relatives buried him in Moncks Corner. On their shirts and lapels, they had pinned photos of him, smiling and sharp, in his Air Force uniform. It was a wordless rebuke to the TV news images that had shown Mr. Hill as he wandered in his last moments — naked, unarmed and acting in a way that alarmed neighbors — through his suburban Atlanta apartment complex.

It was March 9, a Monday afternoon. A DeKalb County police officer, Robert Olsen, arrived on the scene, responding to a 911 call. Witnesses said that Mr. Hill, an African-American, approached the officer, who is white, with his hands either up or at his sides, but that he did not heed the policeman’s order to stop.

Officer Olsen fired. And Mr. Hill would become another hashtag for a roiling movement of Americans who questioned the value that police officers place on black lives.