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Atlanta Becomes Latest City Roiled by Police Killing
Rayshard Brooks, a 27-year-old Atlanta resident, was shot and killed by a police officer on the city’s south side on Friday; on Saturday night, the Wendy’s where the incident began was engulfed in flames.
According to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI), which opened an investigation into the shooting today:
Preliminary information indicates that at approximately 10:33 p.m., APD was dispatched to the Wendy’s located at 125 University Ave, Atlanta, GA. Officers were responding to a complaint of a male in a vehicle parked in the drive-through asleep, causing other customers to drive around the vehicle. A field sobriety test was performed on the male subject. After failing the test, the officers attempted to place the male subject into custody. During the arrest, the male subject resisted and a struggle ensued. The officer deployed a Taser. Witnesses report that during the struggle the male subject grabbed and was in possession of the Taser.
While GBI initially described the shooting as happening during a struggle over the Taser, surveillance video from the scene showed that Brooks tried to flee the scene; during an ensuing chase, he turned and pointed the Taser at the officer, who then fired.
A Taser is not a deadly weapon.
In the wake of the killing, which spawned demonstrations in Atlanta on Saturday night—with protestors briefly shutting down a nearby interstate and setting fire to the Wendy’s—Erika Shields, the city’s police chief, stepped down. The officer who shot Brooks, Garrett Rolfe, has been terminated; the other officer involved, Devin Bronsan, has been placed on administrative duty. Rolfe is White; Brooks was Black.
“While there may be debate as to whether this was an appropriate use of deadly force, I firmly believe that there is a clear distinction between what you can do and what you should do,” Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said during a press conference Saturday night. “I do not believe that this was a justified use of deadly force.”
