Mom advised slaying suspect to surrender

Teen’s hearing to be April 29 in killing of community activist.

The teenager arrested in connection with the shooting death of community activist Barney Simms waived his first appearance Friday and has been scheduled for an April 29 preliminary hearing, at which police will be required to outline a portion of their case against him.

Eric Banks, 17, was arrested Thursday — five days after Simms was gunned down in his front yard at 2:30 p.m. on April 9. He is being held in the Fulton County Jail on no bond. No one from either Banks’ or Simms’ families went to the jail.

Banks was arrested two miles from the scene of the shooting.

Simms, 70, was a respected community leader who sat on several boards and commissions for a wide variety of causes, from family and children services to liquor license review. He also worked for years on the board of the Atlanta Housing Authority. His funeral will be Saturday at Antioch Baptist Church.

Police on Monday released a photograph of Banks with Simms at a Waffle House on Virginia Avenue, taken just one hour before the shooting. They asked for the public’s help in identifying and locating the teen. They issued an arrest warrant and Banks’ mug shot Thursday morning, and arrested him in the late afternoon.

Banks’ mother, Lynette Walker, told Channel 2 Action News she saw the photo. “I knew it was him, because I know his face. I even called his (probation) officer to let him know that I saw him on television.”

Walker says she told her son police were looking for him, and he needed to turn himself in.

Police arrested Banks on Tuesday afternoon at Walker’s home in southwest Atlanta.

Walker told Channel 2 she doesn’t know how her son is connected to Simms beyond her son being offered a ride and a bite to eat.

“He said he saw the man. The man picked him up. That was it,” Walker said.

Simms’ neighbor, Loumerrel Gray, reported hearing gun shots Saturday at 2:30 p.m., but didn’t discover his body until four hours later, after she noticed his hat in her yard. Simms’ body was concealed by hedges separating his yard from hers.

Eric Banks