Mourners gather for man shot by Atlanta officer

Atlanta — Scores of mourners Tuesday paid their final respects to Rayshard Brooks at the Atlanta church where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. used to preach, taking part in a funeral rich with historical echoes and filled with a tragic sense that Black America has been through this all too many times before.

“Rayshard Brooks is the latest high-profile casualty in the struggle for justice and a battle for the soul of America. This is about him, but it is so much bigger than him,” the Rev. Raphael Warnock, senior pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church, told the crowd, two weeks after the Black man was shot twice in the back by a white Atlanta police officer in a fast-food restaurant parking lot.

Warnock recited a long list of names of Black people who died at the hands of police in recent years, including Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Philando Castile and George Floyd, lamenting: “Sadly we’ve gotten too much practice at this.”

Brooks’ widow, Tomika Miller, dressed in white, sat surrounded by family and friends.

Most dressed all in white, while some wore T-shirts with Brooks’ picture. Nearly everyone wore masks against the coronavirus.

Brooks’ killing June 12 came amid weeks of turbulent and sometimes violent protests across the U.S. over Floyd’s death under a white Minneapolis police officer’s knee on May 25.

“We are here because individuals continue to hide behind badges and trainings and policies and procedures rather than regarding the humanity of others in general and Black lives specifically,” the Rev. Bernice King, the civil rights leader’s daughter, told the crowd.