Family of Atlanta police shooting victim Rayshard Brooks make plea: ‘When does it stop?’

The family of a black man killed by Atlanta police in a fast-food car park demanded changes in the criminal justice system.

Tomika Miller, the wife of Rayshard Brooks, holds their daughter, Memory, 2, during the family press conference in Atlanta. Picture: AP

Pleading through tears, the family of a black man killed by Atlanta police in a fast-food car park demanded changes in the criminal justice system and called on protesters to refrain from ­violence.

Rayshard Brooks, 27, was shot twice in the back late on Friday by a white officer who was trying to arres­t him for being intoxicated behind the wheel of his car. Mr Brooks tried to flee after wrestling with ­officers and ­grabbing a stun gun from one of them.

“Not only are we hurt, we are angry,” said Chassidy Evans, Mr Brooks’s niece. “When does it stop? We’re not only pleading for justice. We’re pleading for change.”

About 20 of Mr Brooks’s children, siblings, cousins and other family members sobbed at a news conference as more than 1000 people gathered at a protest outside the Georgia capital.

Mr Brooks’s killing rekindled protests in Atlanta that erupted after George Floyd’s death three weeks ago when a white Minneapolis policeman pressed his knee into the black man’s neck until he died.

Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said she was ordering changes to police use-of-force policies, including ­requiring that officers receive continuous training in how to calm situations and use those techniques before ­taking action that could be fatal.

She said she was also requiring officers to intervene if they saw a colleague using excessive force.

Officer Garrett Rolfe, who fired the shots that killed Mr Brooks, has been sacked, and the other ­officer at the scene, Devin Brosnan, was put on desk duty. Police chief Erika Shields resigned a day after the shooting. District Attorney Paul Howard said he hoped to ­decide by mid-week whether to charge the officers.

The mayor said it was clear the city did not have “another day, ­another minute, another hour to waste” in changing police practices.

Ms Evans said there was no reason for her uncle “to be shot and killed like trash in the street for falling asleep in a drive-through”.

“Rayshard has a family who loves him who would have gladly come and got him so he would be here with us today,” she said.

Relatives described Mr Brooks as a loving father of three daughters and a stepson who had a bright smile and a big heart and loved to dance. His oldest daughter learned her father was slain while celebrating her eighth birthday.

“There’s no justice that can ever make me feel happy about what’s been done,” said Tomika Miller, Mr Brooks’s widow. “I can never get my husband back … I can never tell my daughter he’s ­coming to take you skating or for swimming lessons.”

She asked those demonstrat­ing to “keep the protesting peaceful”, saying: “We want to keep his name positive and great.”

As in Atlanta, officials nationwide are responding to calls for ­reform while protests persist.

New York City’s police department is disbanding the type of plainclothes anti- crime units that were involved in the 2014 death of Eric Garner and have long been criticised for aggressive tactics.

Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot said a panel of residents, activists and one police official would review the police department’s policy on when officers can use force.

Mayor Tim Keller, of Albuquerque, New Mexico, said he wanted a new department of socia­l workers and civilian professionals to provide another option when someone called 911.

And New Jersey’s attorney-general ordered police in the state to begin publicly divulging names of officers who commit serious disciplinary violations.

AP