In the West End neighborhood of Atlanta, Georgia, a nine-year veteran of the Fulton County Sheriff's Office, 35-year-old Deputy Sheriff Ricky Leon Kinchen, tragically lost his life in the line of duty. On the evening of March 16, 2000, Kinchen and his partner, Deputy Aldranon English, were attempting to serve a warrant on a man for failing to appear in court. The deputies had gone to the suspect's workplace and, finding no one there, began to check the surrounding area.
They soon located a vehicle and approached an individual standing beside it to question him.
As the deputies instructed the man to show his hands, he chillingly responded, 'Here they are,' and immediately opened fire with a. 223 caliber rifle. Both deputies were struck multiple times. Kinchen was hit in the abdomen and leg in areas not protected by his ballistic vest. He was rushed to a local hospital where he succumbed to his injuries the following day, March 17, 2000. Deputy English was also critically wounded in the attack but survived.
The man who ambushed the deputies was identified as Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, formerly known as the 1960s black militant H. Rap Brown. Following the shooting, Al-Amin fled the scene, sparking a manhunt that ended with his capture several days later in Alabama. At the time of the incident, the deputies were unaware of Al-Amin's extensive criminal history and his past as a former member of the Black Panthers.
Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin was put on trial for the murder of Deputy Kinchen and the assault on Deputy English. On March 9, 2002, a jury found the 57-year-old guilty on 13 charges, including the murder of a police officer. Four days later, on March 13, 2002, he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Over the years, Al-Amin appealed his conviction, with his case even reaching the U.S. Supreme Court in April 2020, but his appeals were denied. He ultimately died in prison in 2025.
