Grieving Family Makes Plea in Norcross Homicide Case

The youngest son of 46-year-old Timothy Lance Kemp stood in front of cameras yesterday with more than 15 of his family members at his side. His tone was insistent: If you have any information at all about his father’s murder, please talk to police.

The son, Dionte Johnson, wants to know why his father, who he describes as a hard-working family man, was shot once in the head and left in a grassy area in the Harbin Springs apartments where he lived with Johnson’s mother.

A maintenance worker discovered the body while making his morning rounds just over one week ago, on July 25.

Gwinnett Police called the press conference so that media, the Spanish-language media in particular, could get the word out about the unresolved case. The body was found off Harbins Road in an unincorporated area of Norcross that has a large Hispanic population. 

Johnson said that his father took MARTA buses to and from work, often an exhausting one-hour journey. “He has to walk quite a distance from the closest MARTA bus stop,” Johnson said. 

“We’re missing our father,” said Johnson. “Every day my nieces and nephews—his grandkids—ask, ‘Where’s my pop-pop?’” 

Kemp’s niece, Samia Spearing, also spoke as the family trickled out of the room.

“It is a tragedy to have someone taken away from our family in such a manor,” she said. “At the end of the day, justice needs to be served.”

Anyone with information regarding the case should contact the Gwinnett County Police Department at 770-513-5100.