Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Atlanta officers call out sick to protest murder charges
ATLANTA — Atlanta police officers continued to call out sick or refused to answer calls to protest the filing of murder charges against an officer who fatally shot a fleeing man in the back, while the interim chief said members of the force feel abandoned amid protests demanding massive changes to policing.
Interim Chief Rodney Bryant said sick calls began Wednesday night and continued Thursday, but said the department has sufficient staff to protect the city. It’s not clear how many officers have called out.
“Some are angry. Some are fearful. Some are confused on what we do in this space. Some may feel abandoned,” Bryant said of the officers. “But we are there to assure them that we will continue to move forward and get through this.”
Prosecutors brought felony murder and other charges against Garrett Rolfe, a white officer who shot Rayshard Brooks after the 27-year-old black man grabbed a Taser and ran, firing it at the officer, Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard said.
Howard said that Brooks was not a deadly threat at the time and that the officer kicked the wounded black man and offered no medical treatment for over two minutes as he lay dying. Another officer, Devin Brosnan, who the district attorney said stood on Brooks’ shoulder as he struggled for his life, was charged with aggravated assault and violation of his oath.
Rolfe, 27, and Brosnan, 26, turned themselves in Thursday. Jail records show Brosnan was released on a $30,000 signature bond, meaning he only has to pay if he fails to show up for court, while Rolfe was being held without bond.
Less than 24 hours after the June 12 shooting, police Chief Erika Shields resigned, and Bryant took over on an interim basis.
In the roughly three weeks since protests first broke out in Georgia’s capital after George Floyd was killed last month by police in Minnesota, officers have worked shifts of 12 or more hours and have been yelled at, spit on and had things thrown at them, Bryant said.
“At some point, people get tired, I recognize that, and physically exhausted,” he said. “But we’ll get beyond that.”
The decision to prosecute the officers came less than five days after the killing rocked a city — and a nation — still reeling after Floyd’s killing set off nationwide protests that have urged an extensive rethink of policing and an examination of racism in the United States.
Bryant said he was surprised at how quickly Howard reached the decision to charge the officers, noting that the Georgia Bureau of Investigation hadn’t yet had time to finish looking into the shooting.
He would not say how many officers called out, but only one officer showed up Thursday morning in Zone 6, which covers much of Atlanta’s east side and which several dozen are assigned to patrol, said Vince Champion, southeast regional director for the International Brotherhood of Police Officers.
Atlanta officers feel “abandoned, betrayed, used in a political game,” Champion said.
Champion said he’s heard from several officers that they fear using force to protect themselves will get them fired or arrested.
Brooks’ funeral is set for Tuesday at Atlanta’s historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, which was the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s congregation, the Rev. Raphael Warnock announced.