Protesters have shut down a major highway in Atlanta and set fire to a Wendy’s restaurant where a black man was shot by police as he tried to escape arrest.
Rayshard Brooks, 27, was shot dead on Friday night after police were called to the Wendy’s over reports that he had fallen asleep in the drive-through line.
Officers attempted to take him into custody after he failed a field sobriety test, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
The incident, which was caught on video, looked set to fuel more nationwide demonstrations about the treatment of African Americans by police in the wake of the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
The unrest broke out after dark in Atlanta on Saturday, where earlier in the day mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said she had accepted the prompt resignation of police chief Erika Shields over the death of Brooks.
Garrett Rolfe, the officer who allegedly shot Brooks, has been sacked, police spokesman Carlos Campos confirmed late on Saturday. The other officer involved, Devin Bronsan, who was hired in September 2018, has been placed on administrative duty.
US security forces street execute 27 year old Rayshard Brook after attempting to arrest him for sleeping in a Wendy's parking lot. Mass protests across Atlanta now. #AtlantaShooting #AtlantaProtest https://t.co/XB0rdX2YIO
— Anonymous (@YourAnonCentral) June 14, 2020
The police department also released body camera and dash camera footage from both officers.
Images on local television showed the restaurant in flames for more than 45 minutes before fire crews arrived to extinguish the blaze, protected by a line of police officers.
By that time the building was reduced to charred rubble.
Other demonstrators marched onto Interstate-75, stopping traffic, before police used a line of squad cars to hold them back.
“I do not believe that this was a justified use of deadly force,” Bottoms said at an afternoon news conference.
The Wendy's restaurant where #RayshardBrooks was street executed by U.S. security forces has been burnt down. It is alleged that it was Wendy's employees that called the police on Brooks, which led to his execution. #AtlantaShooting #AtlantaProtest pic.twitter.com/BIu2zK5oJ2
— Anonymous (@YourAnonCentral) June 14, 2020
Brooks was the father of a young daughter who was celebrating her birthday on Saturday, his lawyers said. His death from a police bullet came after more than two weeks of demonstrations in major cities across the United States in the name of Floyd, a 46-year-old black man who died on May 25 under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer.
Video shot by a bystander captures Brooks struggling with two officers on the ground outside the Wendy’s before breaking free and running across the parking lot with what appears to be a police Taser in his hand.
Wow. CNN crew attacked by ‘peaceful protestors’ at the Wendy’s in Atlanta. pic.twitter.com/SHs0Sj8R2a
— Kyle Kashuv (@KyleKashuv) June 14, 2020
A second 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 to the ground.
Brooks ran the length of about six cars when he turned back toward an officer and pointed what he had in his hand at the policeman, said Vic Reynolds, director of the GBI at a separate press conference.
Chris Stewart, an attorney for Brooks’ family, said the officer who shot him should be charged for an unjustified use of deadly force, which equals murder.
“You can’t have it both ways in law enforcement,” Stewart said. “You can’t say a Taser is a non-lethal weapon … but when an African American grabs it and runs with it, now its some kind of deadly, lethal weapon that calls for you to unload on somebody.”
