Atlanta Cop Shoots and Kills Inebriated Man Who Resisted Arrest and Fled With Officer's Taser. Death is Ruled a Homicide. Officer Fired
NEW YORKOn Friday night in Atlanta, a 27-year-old black man named Rayshard Brooks was shot and killed by Atlanta police in what Mayor Keisha Bottoms called an unjustified use of deadly force. Brooks’s death, which comes after weeks of nationwide unrest sparked by the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police, quickly led to protests — as well as the resignation of Atlanta police chief Erika Shields. Garrett Rolfe, the officer who killed Brooks, has been fired and may face murder charges, Fulton County district attorney Paul Howard said on Sunday. Also on Sunday, the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled that Brooks’s death was a homicide.
What happened?
Shortly after 10:30 p.m. on Friday night, two Atlanta police officers, Devin Brosnan and Garrett Rolfe — who are both white — responded to a complaint that a man, later identified as 27-year-old Rayshard Brooks, was asleep in his car and obstructing other vehicles in the drive-through lane of a Wendy’s restaurant on University Avenue in southwest Atlanta. According to the Georgia Bureau of Investigations, which is investigating the shooting, the officers gave Brooks a sobriety test, which he allegedly failed. The GBI says that when the officers then went to arrest Brooks, he “resisted and a struggle ensued,” prompting one of the officers to deploy their Tasers. Brooks was able to obtain the Taser before trying to run away, according to the GBI, and then “officers pursued Brooks on foot and during the chase, Brooks turned and pointed the Taser at the officer. The officer fired his weapon, striking Brooks.”
Brooks was taken to the hospital, but died following surgery.
The New York Times has done an exhaustive analysis of the available footage of the event — which includes bodycam footage from the officers, dashcam footage from the officers’ vehicles, bystander videos, and surveillance-camera footage from the Wendy’s.
According to those videos, Officer Brosnan was the first to respond, arriving at 10:42 p.m., at which point he wakes up Brooks in his car and has him pull into a nearby parking space, at one point almost suggesting that Brooks just take a nap. Per the Times, “Officer Brosnan appears to be unsure whether he should let Mr. Brooks sleep in the car or should take further action. At 10:49 p.m., he contacts police dispatch and requests another police officer.”
Officer Rolfe, a more experienced officer, arrives six minutes later and after speaking with Brosnan begins to question Brooks, who is calm, friendly, and compliant with the officers. Rolfe administers a field sobriety test on Brooks, who eventually admits he has been drinking, but says he isn’t too drunk to drive.
Brooks also asks Rolfe if he can just lock up his car and walk to his sister’s home, which he says is nearby, and that his daughter is there, and that they had just celebrated her birthday. Rolfe, in what appears to be an attempt to get Brooks to admit he is too drunk to drive, asks him why he wants to go home. “I don’t want to be in violation of anybody,” Brooks responds.
When Rolfe asks Brooks if he can give him a breath test, Brooks responds, “I don’t want to refuse anything,” and soon agrees to the test. The two officers and Brooks have been talking for nearly 30 minutes, peacefully, by the point Rolfe gets the result of the breath test and at 11:23 p.m. tells Brooks he “has had too much drink to be driving,” and goes to handcuff him. Brooks seems compliant at first, then tries to break free of the officers, who then try to tackle him to the ground.
A cell-phone video of the incident recorded by a bystander shows Brooks and the two officers scuffling on the ground. Rolfe tells Brooks to stop fighting and warns him that he is going to get Tased. “Mr. Rolfe, come on man. Mr. Rolfe,” Brooks says. Officer Brosnan has unholstered his Taser and Brooks gets ahold of it during the scuffle, breaks free, stands up, and punches Rolfe. Brooks does not try to use the Taser. Rolfe fires his Taser at Brooks — who then begins to run away with Brosnan’s Taser still in his hand. Rolfe follows close behind, continuing to try to use his Taser to stun Brooks.
What happens next was captured in a disturbing video recorded by a Wendy’s surveillance camera. Brooks can be seen running across the parking lot with Rolfe close behind. Without stopping running, Brooks half turns around and points the Taser toward Rolfe and fires it.
Rolfe then drops his Taser and unholsters his handgun, firing three times at Brooks as he runs away. Brooks then falls to the ground. All of this happened in the space of about a minute since the officers began trying to arrest Brooks.
The GBI says it will hand over whatever it uncovers in its investigation of the shooting to Fulton County district attorney Paul Howard, who said Saturday that his office “has already launched an intense, independent investigation of the incident.” On Sunday, Howard condemned the shooting.
“[Brooks] did not seem to present any kind of threat to anyone, and so the fact that it would escalate to his death just seems unreasonable … it just seems like this is not the kind of conversation and incident that should have led to someone’s death.” Howard commented in an interview with CNN. Per CNN’s report:
Howard, the district attorney, said the possible charges could include murder, felony murder or involuntary manslaughter.
“Specifically, (the question is if) Officer Rolfe, whether or not he felt that Mr. Brooks, at the time, presented imminent harm of death or some serious physical injury. Or the alternative is whether or not he fired the shot simply to capture him or some other reason,” Howard said. “If that shot was fired for some reason other than to save that officer’s life or to prevent injury to him or others, then that shooting is not justified under the law.”
What we know about Rayshard Brooks, and what his family has had to say
Brooks, 27, lived in Atlanta and leaves behind a wife, three daughters — ages 1, 2, and 8 — and a 13-year-old stepson. According to a lawyer for the family, L. Chris Stewart, Brooks worked at a Mexican restaurant. It was Brooks’s 8-year-old daughter’s birthday on Saturday, Steward said, and on Friday, Brooks had taken her out to eat, to an arcade, and to get her nails done. He was going to take her skating on Saturday.
Brooks’s wife, Tomika Miller, spoke to CBS News on Monday. “Right now I’m still not processing the fact that my husband’s not coming home ever,” she said, explaining that she had already cried over what the family of George Floyd has gone through — and couldn’t believe she was now going through the same thing herself.