Family of Black man slain in Atlanta pleads for change
Mayor ordering changes to police practices after incident at drive-thru
ATLANTA— Pleading through tears Monday, the family of a Black man killed by Atlanta police outside a drive-thru demanded changes in the criminal justice system and called on protesters to refrain from violence amid heightened tensions across the U.S. three weeks after George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis.
An autopsy found that 27year-old Rayshard Brooks was shot twice in the back late Friday by a white officer who was trying to arrest him at a fastfood restaurant for being intoxicated behind the wheel of his car. Brooks tried to flee after wrestling with officers and grabbing a stun gun from one of them.
“Not only are we hurt, we are angry,” said Chassidy Evans, Brooks’ niece. “When does it stop? We’re not only pleading for justice. We’re pleading for change.”
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms announced Monday that she was ordering changes to police use-of-force policies, including requiring that officers receive continuous training in how to de-escalate situations and use those techniques before taking action that could be fatal. She said she also was requiring officers to intervene if they see a colleague using excessive force.
The mayor said that after Brooks’ shooting, it was clear Atlanta did not have “another day, another minute, another hour to waste” in changing police practices.
About 20 of Brooks’ children, siblings, cousins and other family members sobbed at a news conference as over 1,000 people gathered not far away at an NAACP-led protest outside the Georgia Capitol.
Evans said there was no reason for her uncle “to be shot and killed like trash in the street for falling asleep in a drive-thru.”
“Rayshard has a family who loves him who would have gladly come and got him so he would be here with us today,” she said.
Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard said he hopes to decide by mid-week whether to charge the officers. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation was took over the investigation.