Prominent community member Barney Simms shot dead in southwest Atlanta

Georgia Newsday has leaed that the prominent individual shot and killed Saturday evening is the well-known civil and civic leader Baey Simms.

Simms joined the Atlanta Housing Authority joined in August 2002 after years as a community and civic leader in the city. 

Simms served as chairman of several organizations, including the Fulton County DFCS Advisory Board, and the Andrew and Walter Young Family YMCA. 

He was the longtime leader of Atlanta’s License Review Board, which handles alcohol licensing in the city.

Witnesses say they heard gunshots at 4 p.m. Saturday on Connally Drive in southwest Atlanta.

"I live on the next street over. I was sitting in the back. I heard two shots that's it, I didn't know what they was," Russell Rowden said.

Police said they were the gunshots that killed Simms, who was the president of the neighborhood association.

Police found Simms dead in his yard, his door unlocked and his black Lexus gone.

Yvonne Davis, a friend of the victim, said Simms touched many lives.

"I mean he was very active civically and politically and, you know, he retired from the Atlanta Housing Authority. He taught at Perimeter College. He was on the board of Atlanta's Victim Assistance. He was once on the board of the Atlanta license and review board," Davis said.

Police have yet to make any arrests in this homicide.