Atlanta – As Rayshard Brooks lay dying in a Wendy’s parking lot, prosecutors say the Atlanta police officer who shot him in the back kicked …
Atlanta – As Rayshard Brooks lay dying in a Wendy’s parking lot, prosecutors say the Atlanta police officer who shot him in the back kicked him and didn’t give him medical attention for more than two minutes.
Officer Garrett Rolfe, who is white, shot Brooks after the 27-year-old black man grabbed a Taser and ran, firing it at the officer, the prosecutor said. But when the officer fired his gun, Brooks was too far ahead of him for the Taser to be a danger, and it had already been fired twice, so it was empty and no longer a threat, Howard said.
“I got him!” Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard quoted Officer Garrett Rolfe as saying.
On Wednesday, the prosecutor announced a murder charge against Rolfe and an aggravated assault charge against a second officer, Devin Brosnan, who the district attorney said stood on Brooks’ shoulder as he struggled for his life.
The decision to prosecute came less than five days after the killing rocked a city – and a nation – already roiling from the death of George Floyd under a police officer’s knee in Minneapolis late last month.
Rolfe’s lawyers said he feared for his and others’ safety and was justified in shooting Brooks. Rolfe opened fire after hearing a sound “like a gunshot and saw a flash in front of him,” apparently from the Taser.
“Mr. Brooks violently attacked two officers and disarmed one of them. When Mr. Brooks turned and pointed an object at Officer Rolfe, any officer would have reasonably believed that he intended to disarm, disable or seriously injure him,” the lawyers said in a statement.
The prosecutor said Brooks “never presented himself as a threat” during a more than 40-minute interaction with officers before the shooting. An officer found him asleep behind the wheel of his car in the restaurant’s drive-thru, and a breath test showed he was intoxicated.
“Mr. Brooks on the night of this incident was calm, he was cordial and really displayed a cooperative nature,” Howard said.
