Georgia · Atlanta · Crime

Atlanta BeltLine Stabbing at Kroger on Ponce de Leon Avenue NE, Atlanta GA: Johnathan Hamby Arrested, 29-Year-Old Man Killed

A 29-year-old man was stabbed near the Kroger store at 725 Ponce de Leon Avenue NE in Atlanta on Sunday afternoon and died at Grady Memorial Hospital. Police arrested Johnathan Hamby, 54, at the scene. Hamby has not been charged as of publication and is presumed innocent. The man who died has not been named while his family is notified.

By Kate Thompson Published Aug. 23, 6:05 p.m. ET Updated Aug. 23, 9:00 p.m. ET 8 min read 1 dead · 1 arrested

What happened at the Kroger on Ponce de Leon Avenue NE?

The call that brought Atlanta officers to the Kroger at 725 Ponce de Leon Avenue NE came in at about 4:01 p.m. Sunday, police said. They found a wounded man, 29 years old.

He was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital and died there, police said. His name is being held back until relatives can be reached.

Officers who were already working the BeltLine nearby reached the scene first, FOX 5 Atlanta reported. Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum credited 911 callers with how quickly that happened.

Johnathan Hamby, 54, was arrested at the scene and was awaiting booking into the Fulton County Jail, police said. He was being questioned Sunday evening.

Hamby has not been charged. He is presumed innocent.

The two men argued before the stabbing, Schierbaum said. Police have not described what preceded it, and they do not believe the two knew each other.

A knife was recovered, police said. Schierbaum told reporters the public faces no continuing threat, and a dedicated police unit patrols the BeltLine corridor, WSB-TV reported.

Detectives from the Atlanta Police Department’s aggravated assault and homicide units worked the property for several hours, WSB-TV reported. The investigation is continuing.

What have police said about Johnathan Hamby’s record?

Schierbaum took questions at a news conference Sunday evening, some hours after the stabbing, and spent part of it on Hamby’s history.

“Mr. Hamby has an extensive criminal history and has been arrested multiple times by law enforcement. And we’re currently showing 30 previous arrest cycles. We’re showing that he is a convicted felon, and we’re showing that he was on active probation for an aggravated assault that occurred in Brookhaven,” the chief said.

“A dangerous individual is in custody,” Schierbaum said. He also asked at the briefing: “Should this individual have been out of jail?”

Earlier arrests logged against him include counts of battery, aggravated assault, obstruction of law enforcement, criminal trespass, and possession of a knife during a felony, according to Fulton County Jail records. Those are accusations entered at booking, not convictions.

Active probation means a sentence is still being served in the community under supervision rather than in custody. Schierbaum said Hamby was out of jail on supervised release when the stabbing happened.

Hamby has not been charged in this incident and is presumed innocent.

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Where is 725 Ponce de Leon Avenue NE?

It is a Kroger supermarket on Ponce de Leon Avenue NE, inside the city of Atlanta and inside Fulton County. The store stands on the north side of the street, where the road passes the BeltLine corridor.

What is the BeltLine Eastside Trail?

The Eastside Trail is a paved, multi-use section of the Atlanta BeltLine, the loop of trails and parks being built on a ring of former railroad corridors around the central city. The Eastside segment runs through the neighborhoods east of Midtown, and the Kroger property sits alongside it.

What has happened on the BeltLine before, and what has the BeltLine said?

Sunday’s killing was not the first violent attack on the corridor, Atlanta News First reported.

In May, the BeltLine was where Alyssa Paige, 23, was killed in a stabbing. Jahmare Brown is accused in her death and was taken into custody, and he is separately accused of a rock attack on a postal worker. He has not been convicted, and he is presumed innocent.

In February 2022, a man was shot in the head near the trail while heading home from a restaurant. A 2025 trial ended in murder convictions for Brandon Williams and Demetrice Ross, Atlanta News First reported.

The corridor also saw a killing in July 2024 that police attributed to William Coleman, an inmate who had escaped the Atlanta Transitional Center. It happened less than half a mile from the spot where Paige died.

Clyde Higgs, who runs Atlanta BeltLine, Inc. as president and chief executive, put out a statement Sunday. “We are deeply saddened by this tragic incident. Our condolences are with the victim’s family and loved ones and everyone impacted,” it read.

Higgs set the killing against the corridor’s scale, saying millions come to the BeltLine every year and that a day there does not normally resemble this one. Any death near the trail is deeply troubling, he said, and his organization will go on working with partners to assess and improve safety along the whole loop.

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What does it mean that Hamby was arrested at the scene but has not been charged?

It means officers decided on the spot to take him into custody. No charge has been announced.

A detention, an arrest and a charge are three different things, and this incident has moved through the first two of them.

A detention is a temporary hold. An officer with reasonable suspicion that someone is involved in a crime may stop that person and keep them there long enough to confirm or dispel it.

An arrest goes further and requires probable cause. That is what happened here: Hamby was taken into custody at the scene and sent on toward booking at the county jail.

A charge goes further still. It is a formal accusation that a named person committed a named offense, and none has been announced in this case.

The distinction has a practical edge in a case like this one. The offenses written down when a person is booked are the arresting officer’s, and they enter the jail’s records that way. The counts a prosecutor later files are a separate decision, and the two lists do not always match.

Because no charge has been announced, Hamby stands accused of nothing in court, and he is presumed innocent.

What does Georgia law require after an arrest made without a warrant?

Georgia sets a clock running when a person is taken into custody at a scene rather than on a warrant obtained beforehand. The controlling section is O.C.G.A. § 17-4-62.

Under that section, an officer who makes a warrantless arrest must, without delay, bring the person before a judicial officer authorized to receive an affidavit and issue an arrest warrant. If no warrant is obtained, the statute directs that the person be released — and the outer limit it sets is 48 hours.

A different section, O.C.G.A. § 17-4-26, deals with arrests made on a warrant that already exists. It runs on its own timetable and is not the provision that governs a person taken into custody at a scene.

Why were aggravated assault investigators sent to a fatal stabbing?

Because the two units that responded cover the two ways a stabbing can be classified, and at the moment officers are dispatched the classification is not yet settled.

Aggravated assault is defined at O.C.G.A. § 16-5-21. It reaches an assault committed with the intent to murder, to rape or to rob, and an assault committed with a deadly weapon or with any object that, used offensively against a person, is likely to cause or does cause serious bodily injury.

That second branch is the route a stabbing allegation would ordinarily take, and it does not require that anyone die. The homicide unit covers the outcome that did occur here.

No count has been filed against Hamby under that section or any other.

Why has the victim not been named?

The man who died was 29 and lived in Atlanta, police said. His name is being withheld until relatives have been notified.

In Fulton County, the office that determines the cause and the manner of a death of this kind is the county medical examiner.

Those are two separate findings. The cause is the medical answer to what killed a person. The manner is the classification the office assigns — homicide, accident, suicide, natural, or undetermined — and it is the finding that carries weight in a criminal case.

Notification is police and coroner work rather than a public step. It means locating the closest relatives and telling them in person before a name reaches the public, and it can take longer when relatives live out of state or cannot immediately be reached.

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Which agency holds the report, and how is a copy obtained?

The Atlanta Police Department is the investigating agency and holds the incident report.

Access to it runs through the Georgia Open Records Act. Under O.C.G.A. § 50-18-71(b)(1)(A), an agency that receives a request must produce the records responsive to it within a reasonable amount of time not to exceed three business days of receiving the request.

What happens next?

Two tracks run in parallel. The Atlanta Police Department works the criminal investigation, and any case it builds goes to the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office, which decides what count, if any, to bring.

Hamby was awaiting booking after the arrest. Booking is the step that puts a person in the jail’s records and sets up a first appearance before a judicial officer.

At a first appearance, a judicial officer tells the person what he is accused of, addresses his right to a lawyer, and takes up the question of release before trial.

The Fulton County medical examiner separately determines the cause and manner of death and issues the formal identification. That is the office’s own record, produced on its own schedule.

Police have not indicated when further information will be released.

What don’t we know yet?

What are readers asking about this stabbing?

What happened at the Kroger on Ponce de Leon Avenue NE?
Atlanta officers were called to a stabbing at the Kroger at 725 Ponce de Leon Avenue NE at about 4:01 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2026. They found a wounded man of 29, who was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital and died there. Johnathan Hamby, 54, was arrested at the scene.

Where is 725 Ponce de Leon Avenue NE?
It is a Kroger store in the city of Atlanta, in Fulton County, on the north side of Ponce de Leon Avenue NE. The property sits beside the Eastside Trail of the Atlanta BeltLine.

What time did the stabbing happen?
Police were called at about 4:01 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2026.

Who was the person killed on the Atlanta BeltLine?
A 29-year-old man from Atlanta. He died at Grady Memorial Hospital, and police are withholding his name until relatives have been notified.

Has anyone been arrested or charged in the Atlanta BeltLine stabbing?
Johnathan Hamby, 54, was arrested at the scene and was awaiting booking into the Fulton County Jail. No charge has been announced. An arrest is not the same as a charge, and a person who has not been charged is presumed innocent.

Who is Johnathan Hamby?
Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum told reporters that Hamby, 54, has a long arrest history, that records show 30 previous arrest cycles, that he has a felony conviction, and that he was on probation in a Brookhaven aggravated assault case. Hamby has not been charged in this incident and is presumed innocent.

What weapon was used in the Atlanta BeltLine stabbing?
Investigators recovered a knife, police said.

Did the two men know each other?
Police do not believe so. Schierbaum said the two argued before the stabbing.

Is there a continuing threat on the BeltLine?
Schierbaum said the public faces no continuing threat. A dedicated police unit patrols the BeltLine corridor.

Which agency is investigating the stabbing?
The Atlanta Police Department. Detectives from its aggravated assault and homicide units worked the scene for several hours, WSB-TV reported. The investigation is continuing.

What does Georgia law say about aggravated assault?
O.C.G.A. Section 16-5-21 covers an assault committed with intent to murder, to rape or to rob, and an assault committed with a deadly weapon or with any object, device or instrument that, used offensively against a person, is likely to cause or actually does cause serious bodily injury. No one has been charged under that section in this incident.

How does a reader obtain the Atlanta police incident report?
The Atlanta Police Department holds the incident report. Under the Georgia Open Records Act, O.C.G.A. Section 50-18-71(b)(1)(A), an agency must produce records that are responsive to a request within a reasonable amount of time not to exceed three business days of receiving the request.