A convicted felon wanted in the shooting death of a former Georgia State University soccer player is expected to surrender to police sometime Friday.
But Emery Parrish, 30, says he did not randomly shoot Ayokunle Lumpkin, 23, during an altercation early Sunday morning. Instead Parrish claims he was the victim.
Parrish spun out in the rain when he was driving on Milton Street in Southeast Atlanta. His car went through the front yard of a home where Lumpkin and his friends were having a party. Parish eventually crashed into a Hummer parked in the driveway, his lawyer Dennis Scheib says.
Cops say Parrish tried to drive off, but Lumpkin and others tried to stop him and hold him for the cops. That’s when Parrish pulled out a gun and shot Lumpkin in the chest.
"They were just trying to do the right thing," said witness Tyler Claburn. "Things got out of hand, then there were gunshots."
But the suspect’s side of the story is completely different.
Instead of being the aggressor, Parrish says he was trying to cooperate with a drunk crowd when someone attacked him.
"Someone grabbed me from behind," said Parrish in a written statement. "Someone pushed me. I tried to go around the car to get away. Someone hit me in the back of the head. I told them to stop hitting me and let me go."
Parrish got back in the card, but Lumpkin and his group continued to fight. So Parrish grabbed his gun and tried to shoot, his lawyer claims.
"He squeezed the trigger, and it didn't go off," said Scheib. "(Parrish) says this guy sees this and is still coming. He's hitting him, and there's a guy out there in back hitting him. And what he does is, he racks a round in the chamber and then he fires."
That shot hit Lumpkin in the chest. He died at Grady Hospital.
Parrish drove off and called his lawyer first and did not call the police.
"He's very upset," said Scheib. "I've spent about seven hours with him in the last few days, and he's very upset. He said he didn't mean for this to happen. It shouldn't have happened."
Schieb says Parrish will answer to a warrant out for his arrest and turn himself in. Parrish has a past felony drug conviction. It is illegal for felons to carry a firearm.
Atlanta police say they know of Parrish, but have no other comment.