Atlanta police shoot, kill black man ‘who grabbed a Taser during struggle’
The Atlanta restaurant where an unarmed black man was shot dead by police has been burnt to the ground by protesters.
The Wendy’s restaurant in Atlanta where a police officer fatally shot a black man has been burnt to the ground by angry protesters.
The unrest broke out after dark in Atlanta, where earlier on Saturay Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said she had accepted the prompt resignation of police chief Erika Shields over the death on Friday night of 27-year-old Rayshard Brooks at the Wendy’s.
Images on local television showed the restaurant in flames for more than 45 minutes before fire crews arrived to extinguish the blaze, protected by a line of police officers. By that time the building was reduced to charred rubble next to a petrol station.
Other demonstrators marched onto a majory highway, stopping traffic, before police used a line of squad cars to hold them back.
“I do not believe that this was a justified use of deadly force and have called for the immediate termination of the officer,” Bottoms said at an afternoon news conference.
Authorities have not yet released the names of the two officers involved in the shooting, both of whom were white.
Brooks was the father of a young daughter who was celebrating her birthday on Saturday, his lawyers said.
His death from a police bullet came after more than two weeks of demonstrations in major cities across the United States in the name of George Floyd, a 46-year- old black man who died on May 25 under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer. Street protests broke out in Atlanta on Saturday near the scene of the shooting, with more than 100 people calling for the officers to be charged criminally in the case.
Police were called to the Wendy’s over reports that Brooks had fallen asleep in the drive-thru line. Officers attempted to take him into custody after he failed a field sobriety test, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Video shot by a bystander captures Brooks struggling with two officers on the ground outside the Wendy’s before breaking free and running across the parking lot with what appears to be a police Taser in his hand.
A second videotape from the restaurant’s cameras shows Brooks turning as he runs and possibly aiming the Taser at the pursuing officers before one of them fires his gun and Brooks falls to the ground.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation releases surveillance footage from an Atlanta Wendy's showing the moment Rayshard Brooks was fatally shot by an officer: pic.twitter.com/ndS5aTiRd2
— Alex Salvi (@alexsalvinews) June 13, 2020
Brooks ran the length of about six cars when he turned back toward an officer and pointed what he had in his hand at the policeman, said Vic Reynolds, director of the GBI at a separate press conference.
“At that point, the Atlanta officer reaches down and retrieves his weapon from his holster, discharges it, strikes Mr. Brooks there on the parking lot and he goes down,” Reynolds said. “In a circumstance like this where an officer is involved in the use of deadly force, the public has a right to know what happened,” Reynolds said.
Lawyers representing the family of Brooks told reporters that Atlanta police had no right to use deadly force even if he had fired the Taser, a non-lethal weapon, in their direction.
“You can’t shoot somebody unless they are pointing a gun at you,” lawyer Chris Stewart said.
Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard, Jr., said in an emailed statement that his office “has already launched an intense, independent investigation of the incident” while it awaits the findings of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
Initially, a crowd of roughly 150 demonstrators, including members of Brooks’ family, gathered Saturday outside the restaurant where he was shot. Police shut down streets for several blocks around the restaurant as protesters marched peacefully in the streets.
Among them was Crystal Brooks, who said she is Rayshard Brooks’ sister-in-law. “He wasn’t causing anyone any harm,” she said. “The police went up to the car and even though the car was parked they pulled him out of the car and started tussling with him.” She added: “He did grab the Taser, but he just grabbed the Taser and ran.” Gerald Griggs, an attorney and a vice president of Atlanta’s NAACP chapter, estimated there were 150 people protesting at the scene as he walked with them Saturday afternoon.
“The people are upset,” Griggs said. “They want to know why their dear brother Rayshard Brooks was shot and killed when he was merely asleep on the passenger side and not doing anything.” Even though Brooks struggled with officers, Griggs said, “they could have used nonlethal force to take him down.”
Atlanta Deputy Police Chief Timothy Peek told reporters late Friday that both officers deployed their Tasers in an attempt to subdue the suspect but were unable to “stop the aggression of the fight.” Reynolds said his agents will turn over results of their investigation to Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard, whose office will decide whether criminal charges are warranted against either of the officers.
Howard said Saturday his office had already gotten involved. “My office has already launched an intense, independent investigation of the incident,” Howard said in a statement, saying members of his staff “were on scene shortly after the shooting, and we have been in investigative sessions ever since to identify all of the facts and circumstances surrounding this incident.” Stacey Abrams, the Georgia Democrat who gained national prominence running for governor in 2018, tweeted Saturday of the shooting that “sleeping in a drive- thru must not end in death.” “The killing of (hash)RayshardBrooks in Atlanta last night demands we severely restrict the use of deadly force,” Abrams’ tweet said. “Yes, investigations must be called for - but so too should accountability.” The officers involved in the shooting were not identified.
The killing of #RayshardBrooks in Atlanta last night demands we severely restrict the use of deadly force. Yes, investigations must be called for - but so too should accountability.
— Stacey Abrams (@staceyabrams) June 13, 2020
Sleeping in a drive-thru must not end in death. https://t.co/LKsiwA48Ll
Brooks died after being taken to an Atlanta hospital. One of the officers was treated and released for unspecified injuries
AP
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