Jerrion McKinney, 28, pleaded guilty in a Fulton County court on Wednesday, Sept. 10, to being responsible for the 2020 shooting death of 8-year-old Secoriea Turner. Reportedly, McKinney accepted an Alford plea for gang and firearm charges in the case of 8-year-old Secoriea Turner’s death in Atlanta. The plea was entered on September 10, 2025, and resulted in a 40-year sentence, with 20 years to be served in prison.
McKinney admitted to taking a loaded rifle to a makeshift blockade set up near the Wendy’s restaurant on Pryor St. and University Avenue during protests triggered by the police shooting of Rayshard Brooks. McKinney and his co-defendant Julian Conley were among a group of armed individuals blocking a Wendy’s parking lot entrance when gunfire erupted.
The Wendy’s, which was set ablaze during the weeks-long protests, burned down five years ago. McKinney was scheduled to begin trial next week, but the guilty plea prosecutors said he did not kill her.
The death of Turner followed the police killing of Rayshard Brooks, which spawned protesting and rioting across the city.
Brooks was asleep in the parking lot of a Wendy’s restaurant on the night of July 10, 2020 at University Ave. and Pryor Rd. When two police officers aroused the sleeping, but affable Brooks, they suspected that he may have been drinking and proceeded to place him under arrest. Brooks attempted to evade police and grabbed an inactive taser while running from the two officers. Officers maintained that Brooks was killed in self-defense, even though bystander video shows the officers collecting bullet casings before calling for help or rendering assistance to the dying man. Neither officer was charged in the shooting.
In the aftermath of active protests and massive marches the Wendy’s was burned to the ground and the site became ground central for rallies and protest organizers.
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