Officer fired in Atlanta shooting
Autopsy: Black man died from ‘gunshot wounds of the back’
ATLANTA — One minute, Rayshard Brooks was chatting cooperatively with Atlanta police, saying he’d had a couple of drinks to celebrate his daughter’s birthday and agreeing to a breath test. The next, they were wrestling on the ground and grappling over a Taser before Brooks took the weapon and ran.
Seconds later, three gunshots sounded and Brooks fell mortally wounded.
Atlanta police video released Sunday showing a seemingly routine sobriety check outside a Wendy’s restaurant that quickly spins out of control. The killing of the 27-year-old black man in an encounter with two white officers late Friday rekindled fiery protests in Atlanta and prompted the police chief ’s resignation.
Police said Sunday that the department terminated Officer Garrett Rolfe, who fired the fatal shots, and Officer Devin Brosnan was placed on administrative duty. Rolfe had worked for the department since October 2013, and Brosnan since September 2018.
Autopsy results showed Brooks suffered organ damage and blood loss from two gunshot wounds, the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office determined. “His cause of death: gunshot wounds of the back,” an investigator from the medical examiner’s said.
The two officers’ body cameras and the dash-mounted cameras in their patrol cars showed they spent more than 40 minutes peacefully questioning Brooks. The fighting ensued when they tried to handcuff him.
Andy Harvey, chief of police of Ennis, Texas, who has written books and developed training on
community policing, said such moments can turn “in just a split second.”
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is investigating and will present its findings to prosecutors, who will decide whether either officer will face criminal charges.
The officers were called late Friday over complaints of a car blocking the restaurant’s drive-thru lane. Brosnan arrived first and found Brooks alone in the car, apparently asleep.
Brooks agreed to move the car and showed his driver’s license. Rolfe arrived minutes later to conduct a sobriety check.
“I know you’re just doing your job,” Brooks says on the video after consenting to a breath test.
Rolfe doesn’t tell Brooks the results though his body camera recorded a digital readout of 0.108 — higher than the blood alcohol content of 0.08 grams considered too intoxicated to drive under Georgia law.
“I think you’ve had too much to drink to be driving,” Rolfe tells Brooks. “Put your hands behind your back.”
The video shows each officer take hold of one of Brooks’ wrists as Rolfe tries to handcuff him. Brooks tries to run and the officers take him to the ground.
“Stop fighting!” one officer yells.
One of the dash cameras recorded the brawl. As Brooks fights to stand, Brosnan presses a Taser to his leg and threatens to stun him. Brooks grabs the Taser and pulls it away. He struggles to his feet, the Taser in his hand, and starts running.
Rolfe fires his Taser and a yelp can be heard above the weapon’s crackle. Rolfe runs after Brooks, and seconds later three gunshots sound.
Both officers’ body cameras were knocked to the ground in the struggle, and none of the four police cameras captured the shooting. Footage released from a Wendy’s security camera showed Brooks turn and point an object in his hand at one of the officers steps behind him. The officer draws his gun and fires.
“As I pursued him, he turned and started firing the Taser at me,” Rolfe told a supervisor after the shooting in a videotaped conversation. “He definitely did shoot it at me at least once.”
GBI spokeswoman Nelly Miles said Sunday she could not confirm whether Brooks fired the Taser.
Some public officials questioned Sunday whether 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?” Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., said on CBS’ “Face The Nation.” Scott, who is black, said Brooks’ death “is certainly a far less clear one than the ones that we saw with George Floyd and several other ones.”
L. Chris Stewart, an attorney for Brooks’ family, said the officer who shot him should be charged for “an unjustified use of deadly force, which equals murder.”
Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard said in a statement that “because this is a homicide investigation, there are several technical requirements that must be met before we are able to reach a decision.”