Rayshard Brooks, a 27-year-old African American man, was fatally shot by Atlanta police Friday evening after officers were called on-scene due to reports that a man had fallen asleep while parked in the Wendy’s drive-thru, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigations.
Prior to the shooting, the officers conducted a sobriety test on Brooks, which the bureau says he failed. When the officers tried to arrest him, said the bureau, Brooks resisted, and after a struggle, he grabbed an officer’s taser and tried to flee.
“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,” said the bureau.
Brooks was transported to the hospital and died after surgery, said the GBI. One of the two officers experienced an injury of unknown severity during the altercation, but was subsequently released from the hospital.
While the GBI says the officer’s body camera was knocked off during the struggle, at least two videos of the altercation have been circulating online. The first one, filmed by a bystander, shows officers struggling on the floor with a suspect shortly before he flees. The second video, the one from the Wendy’s surveillance camera, shows an officer pursuing a fleeing suspect, who at one point appears to point an illuminated object toward the pursuing officer.
Both videos, shown below, are graphic:
#RayshardBrooks #ATL Last Night @ #Wendys pic.twitter.com/35cYBYY10z
— piccolo (@pr322y) June 13, 2020
GBI released video that shows the moment Rayshard Brooks was shot and killed by an Atlanta Police officer at a Wendys on University Ave last night. Police say Brooks had taken an officer’s taser and pointed it at the officer as he ran. pic.twitter.com/1G8fn03gFV
— Matt Johnson (@MattWSB) June 13, 2020
According to the Los Angeles Times, Atlanta City Council Member Antonio Brown joined a group of several dozen protesters outside of the Wendy’s later Saturday evening, after the shooting but before the GBI publicly released the footage from the fast-food restaurant’s security camera.
“This is why people are outraged in this city,” said Brown. “It’s incredibly important that our police, especially now, don’t resort to firing a gun – not unless someone is firing a gun right at you.”
Stacey Abrams, the former Georgia minority Speaker of the House, has shared multiple statements on the altercation, saying in one that “sleeping in a drive-thru must not end in death.”
A taser is not a deadly weapon. A gun is.
Adrenaline and irritation are not the same as mortal fear.
Running away should not be punishable by death.
Public safety must mean the public is safe. All of us.#BlackLivesMatter #AtlantaShooting #RayshardBrooks
— Stacey Abrams (@staceyabrams) June 13, 2020
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.
Sleeping in a drive-thru must not end in death. https://t.co/LKsiwA48Ll
— Stacey Abrams (@staceyabrams) June 13, 2020
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