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This
undated
photo
provided
by the
Atlanta
Police
Department
shows
Officer
Garrett
Rolfe.
Rolfe
was
fired
following
the
fatal
shooting
of a
black
man and
another
officer
was
placed
on
administrative
duty,
the
police
department
announced
early
Sunday,
June 14,
2020.
(Atlanta
Police
Department
via AP)
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Atlanta
police
shooting
of black
man was
a
homicide,
coroner
says
By
Sharon
Bernstein
reuters.com
ATLANTA
- The
death of
Rayshard
Brooks,
a black
man
killed
by a
white
police
officer
in
Atlanta
on
Friday,
was a
homicide
caused
by
gunshot
wounds
to the
back,
the
Fulton
County
Medical
Examiner’s
office
said on
Sunday.
Brooks’
death
reignited
protests
in
Atlanta
after
days of
worldwide
demonstrations
against
racism
and
police
brutality
prompted
by the
death of
George
Floyd,
an
African
American,
in
Minneapolis
police
custody
on May
25.
An
autopsy
conducted
on
Sunday
showed
that
Brooks,
27, died
from
blood
loss and
organ
injuries
caused
by two
gunshot
wounds,
an
investigator
for the
medical
examiner
said in
a
statement.
The
manner
of his
death
was
homicide,
the
statement
said.
Brooks’
fatal
encounter
with
police
came
after an
employee
of a
Wendy’s
restaurant
in
Atlanta
phoned
authorities
to say
that
someone
had
fallen
asleep
in his
car in
the
restaurant’s
drive-through
lane.
Caught
on the
officer’s
body
camera
and a
surveillance
camera,
the
encounter
seemed
friendly
at
first,
as
Brooks
cooperated
with a
sobriety
test and
talked
about
his
daughter’s
birthday.
“I
watched
the
interaction
with Mr.
Brooks
and it
broke my
heart,”
Atlanta
Mayor
Keisha
Lance
Bottoms
said on
CNN.
“This
was not
confrontational.
This was
a guy
that you
were
rooting
for.”
But
when an
officer
moved to
arrest
him,
Brooks
struggled
with him
and
another
officer
at the
scene
before
breaking
free and
running
across
the
parking
lot with
what
appears
to be a
police
Taser in
his
hand, a
bystander’s
video
showed.
A
video
from the
restaurant’s
cameras
shows
Brooks
turning
as he
runs and
possibly
aiming
the
Taser at
the
pursuing
officers
before
one of
them
fires
his gun
and
Brooks
falls.
Atlanta’s
police
chief,
Erika
Shields,
resigned
over the
shooting.
The
officer
suspected
of
killing
Brooks
was
fired,
and the
other
officer
involved
in the
incident,
also
white,
was put
on
administrative
leave.
As
demonstrators
in
Atlanta
took to
the
streets
and
chanted
for the
officers
in
Brooks’
case to
be
criminally
charged,
at one
point
late on
Saturday
blocking
traffic
on a
nearby
interstate
highway,
the
Wendy’s
restaurant
went up
in
flames.
On
Sunday,
police
offered
a
$10,000
reward
and
published
photos
of what
appeared
to be a
masked
white
woman
being
sought
in
connection
with the
case.
Police
said
they
were
seeking
those
responsible
for the
blaze,
including
a woman
who was
“attempting
to hide
her
identity.”
The
department
posted
photos
on
social
media of
what
looked
to be a
young
white
woman
wearing
a black
baseball
cap and
face
mask,
and a
video
clip
filmed
by a
protester
that
appeared
to show
a woman
encouraging
the
flames.
“Look at
the
white
girl
trying
to burn
down the
Wendy’s,”
the man
recording
the
video
can
heard
saying.
“This
wasn’t
us.”
Bottoms
said on
Saturday
that she
did not
believe
the
shooting
was a
justified
use of
deadly
force.
Lawyers
for
Brooks’
family
said he
was the
father
of a
young
daughter
who was
celebrating
her
birthday
on
Saturday.
They
said the
officers
had no
right to
use
deadly
force
even if
he had
fired
the
Taser, a
non-lethal
weapon,
in their
direction.
Prosecutors
will
decide
by
midweek
whether
to bring
charges,
Fulton
County
District
Attorney
Paul
Howard
said on
Sunday.
“(The
victim)
did not
seem to
present
any kind
of
threat
to
anyone,
and so
the fact
that it
would
escalate
to his
death
just
seems
unreasonable,”
Howard
told
CNN.
Reporting
by
Sharon
Bernstein
and
Peter
Szekely;
Writing
by
Daniel
Wallis;
Editing
by Peter
Cooney
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