Killing of Rayshard Brooks

Coordinates: 33°43′18.4″N 84°23′31.3″W / 33.721778°N 84.392028°W / 33.721778; -84.392028
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Neutrality (talk | contribs) at 15:56, 20 June 2020 (→‎Investigation and criminal charges: cite; c/e). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Killing of Rayshard Brooks
DateJune 12, 2020 (2020-06-12)
Timec. 11:50 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (UTC-4)
LocationAtlanta, Georgia, US
Coordinates33°43′18.4″N 84°23′31.3″W / 33.721778°N 84.392028°W / 33.721778; -84.392028
TypeShooting
DeathsRayshard Brooks

On the night of June 12, 2020, Rayshard Brooks, a 27-year-old black American man, was shot and killed by an Atlanta Police Department officer, Garrett Rolfe, following a complaint about Brooks being asleep in a car blocking a Wendy's drive-through lane.[1][2][3]

After being asked to move the car into a parking space, Brooks was administered a breathalyzer exam and found to be over the legal blood-alcohol content limit to drive. Two officers began to handcuff Brooks, who wrestled with them and seized one's taser. He ran away and Rolfe followed. Brooks turned and fired the taser in Rolfe's direction. Rolfe shot his gun at Brooks three times, striking him twice in the back.[4] Both officers stood over him, then began medical assistance after two minutes.[5]

Video of the incident was widely broadcast and streamed on the internet. Atlanta Chief of Police Erika Shields resigned the next day, saying she wanted to help rebuild trust in the community.[6][7] Protesters later burned down the Wendy's.[8] On June 15, Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms ordered the Atlanta Police Department overhaul its use-of-force policies.[9]

On June 17, Rolfe was charged with felony murder and ten other charges.[10]

Background

  • Rayshard Brooks was a 27-year-old African American resident of Atlanta. He had been married for eight years and had three daughters and a stepson.[11][12] In February 2020, he gave an interview where he discussed his experience being incarcerated, his life struggles after incarceration, and his difficulty finding work and financial problems.[13] He said that he had pleaded guilty to false imprisonment and credit card fraud and was sentenced to one year in prison.[14] A driving under the influence conviction would be grounds for probation revocation and return to jail for Brooks.[15][16]
  • Garrett Rolfe had been with the police department since 2013,[17] having been hired after earning a bachelor's degree in criminal justice from Georgia State University.[18] Rolfe had previously received a written letter of reprimand from the department police for aiming his gun at a fleeing car in a September 2016 high-speed car chase, which resulted in the arrest of one officer, administrative discipline against several others, and the retirement of one sergeant before the end of the investigation.[18] The department's office of professional standards found that police conduct in the chase of a 15-year-old black suspect, who was black, violated departmental policy.[18] Investigators concluded that police (as well as the suspect) engaged in "erratic, unsafe driving riddled with serious traffic violations" that presented a risk to the public that significantly outweighed any benefit to recovering a stolen vehicle and that the incident culminated in police using force that was "clearly unreasonable and unnecessary considering the actions and movements of the suspects involved once the vehicle was stopped and they surrendered."[18] On January 9, 2020, Rolfe had trained on the use of deadly force at the DeKalb County police academy, and on April 24, 2020, Rolfe took a nine-hour course on de-escalation options.[19]
  • Devin Brosnan, the other responding officer, had been with the police department since 2018.[20]

Death

External videos
video icon Witness video on YouTube (38 sec)
video icon Surveillance video depicting the shooting at 28:30 on YouTube (46 min 48 sec)
video icon APD Bodycam Footage of Shooting of Rayshard Brooks CAMERA 1 on YouTube (1 hr 27 min 58 sec)
video icon Brosnan Body Cam: Atlanta Police, University Ave Wendy's on YouTube (1 hr 28 min 37 sec)

Around 10:30 p.m. on June 12, 2020, Atlanta Police Department officer Devin Brosnan responded to a complaint about a man sleeping in a car blocking a Wendy's fast-food drive-through lane in the southside of Atlanta, Georgia. Brosnan found Brooks in the car, awakened him, and told him to move his car out of the drive-through lane; Brooks fell asleep again.[21] After Brosnan radioed a request that a DUI-certified officer be sent, officer Garrett Rolfe arrived at 10:56 p.m.[22][19]

Brooks gave inconsistent answers to Rolfe's questions, denied driving the car, and asserted he was in another county, 10 mi (16 km) away from his actual location.[21] Rolfe administered a series of field sobriety tests and, with Brooks's consent, administered a breathalyzer test. Brooks' blood alcohol level was 0.108, which was over Georgia's legal limit for driving of 0.080.[19][23][24] When Rolfe tried to arrest Brooks, asking, "Can you put your hands behind your back for me?",[25][21]Brooks broke away, then wrestled with the officers and punched Rolfe.[22]

During the struggle an officer said, "You're going to get tased! Stop fighting ... hands off the taser."[19][24] According to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI), witnesses reported (and video shows) that Brooks wrested away one officer's taser, overpowered the two officers,[26] ran away, and the officers then chased him. Rolfe appears to begin to draw his weapon. Video footage then shows Brooks turn toward Rolfe while running, point the taser in Rolfe's direction and fire it.[27] (The New York Times, in an analysis of several videos of the encounter, reported that the "flash of the Taser suggests that Mr. Brooks did not fire it with any real accuracy.")[22] Rolfe drew his firearm and fired three times at Brooks, striking him twice in the back.[23][28][29] Neither officer provided medical attention to Brooks until two minutes later, when the officers began to provide medical assistance with Rolfe appearing to unroll a bandage and place it on Brooks’s torso.[22] Five minutes after the shots were fired an ambulance arrived and Brooks was taken to the hospital, where he died following surgery.[1] One officer was treated for an injury.[24]

Investigation and criminal charges

The medical examiner said Brooks' death was a homicide.[30]

The Atlanta Police Department asked the GBI to investigate.[31] The two officers were removed from duty;[32] soon after, Rolfe was fired and Brosnan placed on administrative duty.[17][33] On June 13, Atlanta's police chief Erika Shields resigned; Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said Shields had resigned in the hope that "the city may move forward with urgency and [rebuild] the trust so desperately needed throughout our communities."[6][7][23]

Before conclusion of the GBI investigation,[34] on June 17 Fulton County District Attorney Paul L. Howard Jr. announced eleven charges against Rolfe: felony murder, five counts of aggravated assault, four police oath violations and damage to property.[10] He said Rolfe should have been aware that the taser Brooks had taken posed no danger, as it had been fired twice and was therefore not functional.[35] Three charges were filed Brosnan: aggravated assault and two counts of violation of oath.[36][37] Howard accused the officers of not providing required timely medical treatment to Brooks after he was shot (assistance started two minutes after the shooting of Brooks) and stated that while Brooks lay on the ground Rolfe kicked him and Brosnan stood on his shoulders.[35]

On June 19, Rolfe and his defense team opted to waive the first court hearing in Fulton County Magistrate Court.[38][39][40] Rolfe was denied bond due to the nature of the charges against him.[16][38] Brosnan was granted bail and released from jail after posting bond.[41]

Reactions

Further information: 2020 Atlanta Police Strike

Demonstrators gathered at the site of the shooting on June 12 and 13.[42] On June 13, protesters burned down the Wendy's restaurant outside which Brooks was shot, set fire to several nearby cars, and broke a CNN camera.[43][44][45]

Atlanta police officers initiated a "blue flu" demonstration beginning on June 18, calling in sick to work to protest charges against Rolfe. Numbers were not released, but only one officer showed up to work in one precinct to which several dozen are assigned.[46][47]

The Georgia Sheriffs’ Association condemned District Attorney Howard’s actions, calling them a "... grandstanding vote seeking tactic...".[48] Howard is in a close race with a former chief deputy to stay in office at a time when three past or present employees have sued him, the state ethics commission alleges violations, and the GBI is investigating his use of funds.[49][50]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "Atlanta police chief resigns after fatal police shooting". Associated Press. June 13, 2020. Archived from the original on June 13, 2020. Retrieved June 13, 2020.
  2. ^ Moshtaghian, Artemis; Croft, Jay (June 13, 2020). "Atlanta police officer shoots a black man dead at a fast-food drive-thru, authorities say". CNN. Retrieved June 13, 2020.
  3. ^ Hauck, Grace (June 13, 2020). "Black Atlanta man Rayshard Brooks dies after police shooting at a Wendy's drive-thru, investigators say". USA Today. Retrieved June 13, 2020.
  4. ^ Young, Ryan; Levenson, Eric; Almasy, Steve; Maxouris, Christina (June 17, 2020). "Ex-Atlanta Police officer who killed Rayshard Brooks charged with felony murder". CNN. Retrieved June 19, 2020.
  5. ^ Browne, Malachy; Kelso, Christina; Barbara, Marcolini. "How Rayshard Brooks Was Fatally Shot by the Atlanta Police". nytimes.com. The New York Times Company. Retrieved June 19, 2020.
  6. ^ a b Siegel, Rachel (June 13, 2020). "Atlanta police chief resigns after law enforcement fatally shoots black man". The Washington Post. Retrieved June 13, 2020.
  7. ^ a b Osborne, Mark; Hoyos, Joshua (June 13, 2020). "Atlanta Police Chief Erika Shields resigns in wake of fatal shooting". ABC News. Retrieved June 13, 2020.
  8. ^ ANDERSON, RUSS BYNUM and BRYNN. "Atlanta police chief resigns after fatal police shooting". WHIO. Archived from the original on June 14, 2020. Retrieved June 14, 2020.
  9. ^ Fausset, Richard; Rojas, Rick (June 15, 2020). "Atlanta Mayor Tightens Rules on When Police Can Use Force". Archived from the original on June 16, 2020. Retrieved June 16, 2020 – via NYTimes.com.
  10. ^ a b Hansen, Zachary; Boone, Christian (June 17, 2020). "Atlanta Cop Charged with Felony Murder, other charges in Rayshard Brooks Death". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Archived from the original on June 17, 2020. Retrieved June 17, 2020.
  11. ^ Justin Carissimo (June 16, 2020). "Who is Rayshard Brooks, 27-year-old black man killed by Atlanta police?". CBS News.
  12. ^ Danner, Chas (June 14, 2020). "Everything We Know About the Killing of Rayshard Brooks by Atlanta Police". Intelligencer. Retrieved June 15, 2020.
  13. ^ Reyes, Lorenzo (June 18, 2020). "Rayshard Brooks opened up about struggles, incarceration months before death. He wasn't going to 'give up'". USA Today.
  14. ^ Kaye, Randi (June 17, 2020). "Rayshard Brooks opened up about the struggles of life after incarceration in an interview before his death". CNN.
  15. ^ Strassmann, Mark (June 19, 2020). "Rayshard Brooks On Probation At The Time Of His Death". WUPA.
  16. ^ a b St. Henry, Meredith (June 19, 2020). "Officer Garrett Rolfe Held Without Bond For Killing of Rayshard Brooks". WWTV.
  17. ^ a b Calicchio, Dom (June 14, 2020). "Atlanta police Officer Garrett Rolfe fired, another reassigned after Rayshard Brooks death". Fox News.
  18. ^ a b c d Brittany Shammas, Ex-Atlanta officer charged with killing Rayshard Brooks reprimanded for pointing gun at car in 2016, Washington Post (June 20, 2020).
  19. ^ a b c d Boone, Christian (June 14, 2020). "Body cam footage of Rayshard Brooks' death shows calm, then chaos". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Archived from the original on June 14, 2020. Retrieved June 14, 2020.
  20. ^ Bynum, Russ; Anderson, Brynn (June 14, 2020). "`Stop fighting!' Atlanta sobriety test quickly turned deadly". Associated Press.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  21. ^ a b c "Rayshard Brooks went from telling Atlanta officer about visiting mother's grave to being fatally shot: Video". ABC News. Archived from the original on June 16, 2020. Retrieved June 16, 2020.
  22. ^ a b c d Browne, Malachy; Kelso, Christina (June 14, 2020). "How Rayshard Brooks Was Fatally Shot by the Atlanta Police". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on June 14, 2020. Retrieved June 14, 2020.
  23. ^ a b c Trubey, J. Scott; McCray, Vanessa; Arielle Kass (June 13, 2020). "Atlanta police shooting death of Rayshard Brooks roils city". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Archived from the original on June 14, 2020. Retrieved June 14, 2020.
  24. ^ a b c Artemis Moshtaghian, Jay Croft, Paul P. Murphy, Kelly McCleary and Amir Vera. "Atlanta protesters block interstate, set fire to cars at fast-food restaurant where police killed black man". CNN. Retrieved June 14, 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  25. ^ Robinson, Eugene. "Opinion | It's not complicated: Rayshard Brooks should be alive". Washington Post. Archived from the original on June 16, 2020. Retrieved June 16, 2020.
  26. ^ Ortiz, Jorge; Peebles, Will. "Rayshard Brooks died after he was shot by Atlanta police officer Garrett Rolfe. What happens now?". usatoday.com. Gannett Co., Inc. Retrieved June 20, 2020.
  27. ^ Maxouris, Christina; Levenson, Eric; Sutton, Joe (June 14, 2020). "Atlanta Police killing of Rayshard Brooks leads to officer's firing and chief's resignation". CNN. Archived from the original on June 14, 2020. Retrieved June 14, 2020.
  28. ^ Oliviero, Helena; Boone, Christian (June 14, 2020). "Who was Rayshard Brooks?". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Archived from the original on June 14, 2020. Retrieved June 14, 2020.
  29. ^ Burke, Minyvonne (June 13, 2020). "Man's death after police shooting outside Wendy's in Atlanta sparks investigation, protests". NBC News. Archived from the original on June 13, 2020. Retrieved June 13, 2020.
  30. ^ "Rayshard Brooks police shooting was homicide, says medical examiner". The Guardian. June 15, 2020. Archived from the original on June 18, 2020. Retrieved June 18, 2020.
  31. ^ BYNUM, RUSS; ANDERSON, BRYNN. "Atlanta police chief resigns after officers shoot, kill black man following struggle in Wendy's drive-thru lane". Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on June 14, 2020. Retrieved June 14, 2020.
  32. ^ Siegel, Rachel (June 14, 2020). "Officer kills black man; police chief resigns". Times Union. Archived from the original on June 14, 2020. Retrieved June 14, 2020.
  33. ^ "Night of protest, unrest after officer-involved shooting of Rayshard Brooks; one officer fired". June 14, 2020. Archived from the original on June 14, 2020. Retrieved June 14, 2020.
  34. ^ Carr, Nicole. "Many question DA's decision to charge officers in Brooks case before end of GBI investigation". wsbtv.com. Cox Media Group. Retrieved June 19, 2020.
  35. ^ a b "Rayshard Brooks shooting: Atlanta officer charged with felony murder". The Guardian. June 17, 2020. Archived from the original on June 18, 2020. Retrieved June 17, 2020.
  36. ^ Siddiqui, Sabrina (June 17, 2020). "Atlanta Police Officer Who Shot Rayshard Brooks Charged With Felony Murder". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Archived from the original on June 17, 2020. Retrieved June 17, 2020.
  37. ^ [1], KIRO/WSB-TV (June 17, 2020).
  38. ^ a b King, Michael; Haney, Adrianne M; Sirianni, Maura (June 19, 2020). "Ex-Atlanta officer charged in Rayshard Brooks shooting waives court appearance; denied bond". 11alive.com. WXIA-TV. Retrieved June 20, 2020.
  39. ^ https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/19/us/rayshard-brooks-atlanta-shooting-friday/index.html
  40. ^ https://www.11alive.com/video/news/crime/former-apd-officer-garrett-rolfe-waives-first-court-appearance/85-466551ec-1379-4b8a-8fec-215eb007fd78
  41. ^ Meredith St. Henry, Officer Garrett Rolfe Held Without Bond For Killing of Rayshard Brooks, WWTV (June 19, 2020).
  42. ^ Maher, Kris (June 13, 2020). "Protests Planned in Atlanta After Police Shooting of Black Man". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved June 13, 2020.
  43. ^ "Rayshard Brooks shooting: Protesters block traffic on Atlanta highway". WJAX. Archived from the original on June 14, 2020. Retrieved June 14, 2020.
  44. ^ Washington, Audrey. "LIVE UPDATES: Wendy's where Rayshard Brooks was killed goes up in flames". WSBTV. Archived from the original on June 14, 2020. Retrieved June 14, 2020.
  45. ^ Artemis Moshtaghian, Jay Croft, Paul P. Murphy, Kelly McCleary and Amir Vera. "Atlanta officer who fatally shot Rayshard Brooks has been terminated". CNN. Retrieved June 14, 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  46. ^ Brumback, Kate (June 18, 2020). "Atlanta police call out sick to protest charges in shooting". AP News. Archived from the original on June 18, 2020. Retrieved June 18, 2020.
  47. ^ Cohen, Seth (June 18, 2020). "As Atlanta Police Protest, Is "Blue Flu" The Next Pandemic?". Forbes. Retrieved June 18, 2020.
  48. ^ Stevens, Alexis. "Interim Atlanta police chief: 'We will not fail this city' - Rodney Bryant was appointed after Erika Shields stepped aside". ajc.com. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Retrieved June 19, 2020.
  49. ^ Boone, Christian. "Fulton D.A. Paul Howard seeks seventh term amid controversy - Three past or present employees have sued him, the state ethics commission alleges violations and the GBI is investigating use of funds". ajc.com. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Retrieved June 19, 2020.
  50. ^ McDonald, R. Robin. "As Fulton DA Race Heads to Runoff, Candidates Spar on Corruption Claims & Police Prosecutions". law.com (Daily Report). ALM Media Properties, LLC. Retrieved June 19, 2020.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Killing_of_Rayshard_Brooks&oldid=963576722"