Community Corner

The Griffin Family Announces Proposed Shatikey and Demiya Predatory Violence Prevention Act

Mother and daughter, Shatikey and Demiya Griffin, were killed in 2012 in southwest Atlanta by the husband/step father.

(The Following was sent to us by SE Region News)

On Saturday, May 11, 2013, in acknowledgement of Mother’s Day and a mother’s heart, the family of deceased Ms. Shatikey (age 34) and Demiya (age 12) Griffin will hold a news conference at 1:00 pm.  The news conference is to be held at the Griffin family residence on 195 Lynhurst Drive SW, Atlanta 30311.

Mrs. Griffin’s daughter and granddaughter -- Shatikey and Demiya Griffin -- were murdered in their home by Shatikey Griffin’s committed marital partner Joseph Leonardo Smith early Sunday morning, September 23, 2012.  A warrant had been taken out for Smith’s arrest on Friday, September 21, 2012, from the report of an attempted rape victim on Thursday the 20th. 

The Atlanta Police Department failed to pick up Smith before he strangled a woman in East Point late Saturday night Sept. 22rd, and went on to shoot Shatikey Griffin and her young daughter a few hours later.

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Joseph Leonardo Smith has been charged 5 times over the last 13 years, with 3 arrests for battery charges – one being a sexual battery charge.

Despite formal efforts by the Griffin family requesting that the Atlanta Police Department explain the circumstances behind the delay in picking up Joseph Smith, there has been no official written response back, neither from the Atlanta Police Department, nor from the Atlanta Police Department Chief of Police Chief George Turner himself.

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Recently, Shatikey’s father Thaddeus Griffin passed away. With the family having lost their daughter/sister/mother, their granddaughter/niece, and their husband/father/grandfather, within a few months of one another, close family members alongside Shatikey Griffin’s mother have been galvanized into taking collective action. 

They have decided to begin communicating to their fellow Atlanta community members, and to local and national media, about each step they take in getting the Shatikey and Demiya Predatory Violence Prevention Act passed by the Georgia Assembly and the U.S. Congress in the coming legislative session.

The Griffin family is presenting the Shatikey and Demiya Predatory Violence Prevention Act to ensure no other family will suffer from deadly violence caused by a known predator.

The proposed legislative act is intended to serve as a model for states nationwide in preventing predatory violence.


Shatikey & Demiya Predatory Violence Prevention Act

An act of violence committed by an individual who has a history of aggression, bullying and assaults is categorized as predatory violence, the individual is defined as a predator and a predator warrant is issued and immediately served to make future acts of violence preventable, and

Whereas:  A predator would not injure or otherwise harm individuals and families, and

Whereas: A predator would not injure or otherwise harm persons in a neighborhood, and

Whereas:  A predator would not injure or otherwise harm persons in a community, and

Whereas: A predator would not injure or otherwise harm persons in an organization, and

Whereas: A predator would not injure or otherwise harm persons in a business, and

Whereas: The prevention of an act of predatory violence would have saved the lives of Shatikey and Demiya Griffin, therefore

This act of law herein and after being known as the Shatikey and Demiya Predatory Violence Prevention Act is enacted to have predator warrants immediately served with all extreme and deliberate law enforcement effort and is hereby established in this year by the General Assembly of the State of Georgia in the United States of America.


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