The police chief in Atlanta, Georgia, resigned after an officer fatally shot a black man during an arrest, the mayor said on Saturday, with the new killing injecting fresh anger into protests against racism and police brutality.
Images on local media showed hundreds of protesters in the streets on Saturday and flames engulfing the Wendy’s restaurant where 27-year-old Rayshard Brooks was killed.
The officer who shot Brooks was dismissed on Saturday and identified by the Atlanta Police Department as Garrett Rolfe. The second officer was placed on administrative duty, ABC News reported.
Photo: Reuters
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms had earlier announced the resignation of Chief Erika Shields, who has worked for Atlanta’s police department for more than two decades.
“Because of her desire that Atlanta be a model of what meaningful reform should look like across this country, Chief Shields has offered to immediately step aside as police chief,” the mayor said in televised comments.
She said it was Shields’ own decision to step aside and that she would remain with the city in an undetermined role. Interim Corrections Chief Rodney Bryant would serve as interim police chief, Bottoms said.
Photo: Reuters
“I do not believe that this was a justified use of deadly force,” Bottoms said of Friday’s shooting.
Wendy’s employees called police on Friday night to complain that Brooks was asleep in his car and blocking other customers on the premises, an official report said.
He failed a sobriety test and resisted when police tried to arrest him, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) said.
Surveillance video showed “that during a physical struggle with officers, Brooks obtained one of the officer’s Tasers and began to flee from the scene,” the report continued.
“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,” it said.
Brooks was taken to hospital, but died after surgery, it said, adding that one officer was injured.
An attorney acting for the dead man’s family said disproportionate force was used in the confrontation.
“In Georgia a Taser is not a deadly weapon — that’s the law,” L. Chris Stewart told reporters. “Support came, in I think two minutes. He would have been boxed in and trapped. Why did you have to kill him?”
“[The officer] had other options than shooting a man in the back,” Stewart said.
Brooks has four children, and had celebrated the birthday of his eight-year-old girl earlier on Friday, Stewart added.
His death is the 48th shooting involving an officer the GBI has been asked to investigate this year, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. Fifteen of those incidents were fatal.
The unrest comes as the US faces a historic reckoning on systemic racism, with mass civil unrest ignited by the May 25 killing of George Floyd, while in police custody in Minnesota.
Floyd died after a white Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes.
In other developments on Saturday, in Palmdale, California, hundreds of people marched to demand an investigation into the death of Robert Fuller, 24, who was found hanging from a tree on Wednesday near city hall.
The protesters marched from where Fuller’s body was found to a sheriff’s station, with many carrying signs that said “Justice for Robert Fuller.”
Authorities said the death appeared to be a suicide, but an autopsy was planned.
The city said there were no outdoor cameras that could have recorded what happened.
Fuller’s death brought to light the death of another black man found hanging from a tree on May 31 in Victorville, a desert city 72km east of Palmdale.
A sheriff’s spokeswoman, Jodi Miller, told Victor Valley News foul play was not suspected in 38-year-old Malcolm Harsch’s death, but the man’s family said they were concerned that it might be ruled a suicide to avoid further attention.
Additional reporting by AP
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