Police officer fired in death of black man
Another was placed on administrative duty for the fatal shooting that rekindled fiery protests in the city.
ATLANTA » Atlanta police said Sunday that the department fired one officer and placed another on administrative duty for the fatal shooting of a black man who resisted arrest after failing a field sobriety test — a death that rekindled fiery protests in the city and also caused the police chief to resign.
Body camera footage released early Sunday by Atlanta police showed Rayshard Brooks, 27, appearing good-humored and largely cooperative with the two white officers after being found sleeping alone in a car blocking a Wendy’s drive-thru lane.
“I know you’re just doing your job,” Brooks tells one of the officers about 40 minutes into the encounter when he agrees to a breath test.
After he takes the test, an officer tries to handcuff Brooks and he attempts to flee — resulting in a struggle that ended with his death late Friday.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation said Brooks wrestled a Taser from one of the officers and ran. The GBI released security camera footage from the restaurant that showed a running Brooks turn and point an object in his hand toward an officer a few steps behind him. The video shows the officer draw his gun and fire as Brooks continues to run, then falls to the ground in the parking lot.
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said Saturday, “I do not believe that this was a justified use of deadly force.”
Officer Garrett Rolfe was terminated while officer Devin Brosnan has been placed on administrative duty, an Atlanta police spokesman, Sgt. John Chafee, said in a brief statement Sunday. Rolfe had worked for the department since October 2013, and Brosnan was hired in September 2018.
Police Chief Erika Shields, who joined the department as a beat officer in 1995, resigned Saturday after nearly four years as chief. In a statement, Shields called for Atlanta to “move forward and build trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve.”
Meanwhile, a demonstration that began peacefully Saturday morning outside the restaurant where Brooks was shot grew more turbulent after dark. Demonstrators marched onto nearby Interstate 75 and blocked traffic while the Wendy’s at the shooting scene was set ablaze and gutted by flames.
Atlanta police said Sunday that 36 people had been arrested in connection with the protests but gave no further details.
Brooks’ death at the hands of police inflamed raw emotions in Atlanta and across the U.S. following the May 25 killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Some public officials questioned Sunday whether the shooting of Brooks was as clearly an abuse as Floyd’s death after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed a knee to his neck.
“The question is when the suspect turned to fire the Taser, what should the officer have done?” U.S. Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, said on CBS’ “Face The Nation.”
Scott is the Senate’s only black Republican and among GOP senators working on a package of policing changes.
Scott said the police shooting of Brooks “is certainly a far less clear one than the ones that we saw with George Floyd and several other ones around the country.”