WE’RE BEING TARGETED
‘There’s no justice that can ever make me feel happy,’ sez wife of Ga. man killed by cop
The death of a black man gunned down by an Atlanta police officer in a fast-food restaurant parking lot is just further proof that AfricanAmericans are being targeted by out-of-control cops, the victim’s family said Monday.
Rayshard Brooks’ wife said she had been grieving with much of America over the Memorial Day death of police brutality martyr George Floyd, never imagining that family’s pain would show up at her own front door.
“There’s no justice that can ever make me feel happy about what’s been done,” Brooks’ widow, Tomika
Miller, said while holding her infant daughter, days after a cop shot Brooks in the back while he was running away.
“I can never get my husband back. I can never get my best friend. I can never tell my daughter, ‘Oh, he’s coming to take you skating or to swimming lessons.’ It’s going to be a long time before I can heal. It’s going to be a long time before this family can heal.”
Brooks, 27, was shot and killed Friday night in the parking lot of an Atlanta Wendy’s after a customer called 911 to report that a man was asleep in his car.
The father of three girls struggled with police during an attempted arrest after he failed a sobriety test, and was shot after he allegedly snatched a Taser from one of the officers.
Video appeared to show Brooks turning to fire the Taser — a nonlethal weapon — during the chase, and he was gunned down a brief moment later.
Officer Garrett Rolfe, who fired the fatal shots, was terminated, and his partner, Officer Devin Bronsan, was placed on administrative duty early Sunday, hours after Police Chief Erika Shields resigned.
The Fulton County medical examiner announced Sunday that an autopsy
revealed Brooks’ cause of death as two gunshot wounds to the back. His death has been ruled a homicide. Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard said Sunday that Rolfe could face charges of murder, felony murder or involuntary manslaughter.
“[Brooks] did not seem to present any kind of threat to anyone, and so the fact that it would escalate to his death just seems unreasonable,” Howard told CNN.
“It just seems like this is not the kind of conversation and incident that should have led to someone’s death.”
Miller told “CBS This Morning” that the officers “need to be put away.”
“I want them to go to jail,” Miller said. “I want them to deal with the same thing as if it was my husband who killed someone else. If it was my husband who shot them, he would be in jail. He would be doing a life sentence.”
Miller said the other officer should have told his partner to calm down.
“All of them need to be sentenced the same way,” Miller said.
President Trump, who has incurred the wrath of many of the protesters, said he was troubled by Brooks’ death.
“I thought it was a terrible situation,” Trump said Monday during a round-table event at the White House. “To me it was very disturbing.”
Brooks’ cousin Chastity Evans said the family has been following the Black Lives Matter protest movement that has unfolded in the weeks since a handcuffed Floyd died under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer.
The Minneapolis cop, Derek Chauvin, pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes during a caught-on-camera arrest. Chauvin was fired, along with three other cops involved in the arrest, and charged with second-degree murder.
“One of our biggest fears became our reality,” said Evans, 27. “This time it landed on our front doorstep. No one on this green Earth is supposed to be shot and killed like trash for falling asleep in a drive-in.
“His life mattered,” Evans said through tears. “George Floyd’s life mattered.
Breonna Taylor’s life mat- tered. Michael Brown’s life mattered. Sandra Bland’s life mattered.”
Brooks was the father of three daughters ranging in age from 1 to 8, and also had a 13-year-old stepson. Saturday was his daughter’s eighth birthday.
Attorney Chris Stewart said Monday that actor-director Tyler Perry will be paying for Brooks’ funeral.
Stewart suggested Brooks may have resisted arrest and fled because he feared for his life. “They put George Floyd in handcuffs and he was subsequently killed,” Stewart said. “So just getting put in handcuffs if you’re AfricanAmerican doesn’t mean, oh, you’re going to get nicely taken to the back of a police car.”