Atlanta police shooting victim Rayshard Brooks was having an amiable chat with cops about his daughter’s birthday just seconds before he was gunned down as he tried to escape arrest, new bodycam footage shows.
Brooks, 27, slurred his words as he spoke to lead officer Garrett Rolfe and his colleague, Devin Brosnan, outside a Wendy’s restaurant Friday night — one later torched in protests over the deadly police arrest.
“I just had a few drinks, that’s it … It was my daughter’s birthday,” Brooks told Rolfe, adding that he had been “intent to have a good time”
“I can walk home. I just don’t want to be in violation of anything,” he told them in the calm, friendly-sounding exchange, hoping to avoid a drunk-driving arrest. “I don’t wanna refuse anything,” he insisted.
The interaction only turned when the officers went to cuff Brooks — who immediately struggled and tried to flee, the footage makes clear.
“Drop the Taser! Stop fighting!” the officers shouted at Brooks, who was seen in other footage appearing to fire the Taser as he tried to run away.
A series of gunshots then rang out — with a short pause before onlookers immediately expressed outrage at the deadly shooting of a black man by white cops.
“You murderer! what the f–k!” one man could be heard shouting amid unintelligible screaming and shouting.
“You f—ing shoot him? That’s totally unnecessary,” someone shouted at the officers, while another man said, “Man, that’s messed up.”
Rolfe — a seven year veteran of the force — was fired and Brosnan, who joined in September 2018, was put on administrative leave, officials confirmed late Saturday.
It followed calls from Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, who had insisted the shooting was not a “justified use of deadly force.”
The officers’ boss, Atlanta Police Chief Erika Shields, also resigned over the fatal incident, citing a “deep and abiding love for this City and this department.”
Atlanta Police Union representative Ken Allen told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC) that rank and file was “devastated” by Rolfe’s firing and demoralized at losing Shields’ leadership.
“I certainly wouldn’t be proactive if I was an officer now,” he told AJC.
He called Rolfe — who recently had nine-hours of use-of-force training — an “exceptional officer” who followed proper procedure in his handling of Brooks’ attempted arrest.
The killing sparked a new wave of protests in Atlanta, where demonstrations following the May 25 police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis had largely simmered down.
The Wendy’s restaurant outside which Brooks was fatally shot was set ablaze Saturday night. Other demonstrators marched onto Interstate-75, stopping traffic, before police used squad cars to hold them back.
With Post wires
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June 14, 2020 at 08:19PM
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