The family of Rayshard Brooks, an unarmed black man who was shot twice in the back by a white Atlanta police officer on Friday after he fell asleep in his car, have called for murder charges and a radical overhaul of the city’s police department.
In an intense and tearful press conference attended by about 10 members of the victim’s family on Monday, relatives spoke of the happy and smiling man whose life was cut short by police bullets at the age of 27.
Brooks’s widow, Tomika Miller, carried their infant child as she said: “There’s no justice that can ever make me feel happy about what’s been done. I can never get my husband and best friend back.”
Urging protesters to remain peaceful so her husband’s name could remain “positive and great”, Miller added that his death was the result of policing that held all black people in fear.
“I’m scared every day my children go out, my family members go out, because I don’t know they are going to come home.”
Brooks’s cousin, Tiara Brooks, said the family’s trust in the police “is broken”. She said “the only way to heal some of these wounds is through a conviction and the drastic change of the police department”.
Brooks was killed at the culmination of a prolonged interaction with two officers at a Wendy’s drive-thru, shortly before he was to celebrate the eighth birthday of one of his daughters. The officers were initially called because Brooks had fallen asleep in his car while waiting in line.
The engagement began calmly, with Brooks talking to the two officers civilly for about 20 minutes. Brooks complied with everything he was asked to do, including moving his car and offering to lock the vehicle and walk to his sister’s house nearby.
But the officers insisted on a breathalyser test. A tussle broke out and Brooks began to run from the scene carrying a Taser grabbed from one of the officers, who pursued on foot.
Brooks turned and fired the Taser into the air though the charge did not appear to come close to either of the officers. One of them, Garrett Rolfe, responded by raising his police firearm and firing three times at Brooks’s back.
According to a medical examiner’s report, Brooks had “two gunshot wounds [to] the back”. The report found his death to be a “homicide”.
The prosecutor for Fulton county is now considering whether to bring charges against Rolfe and his partner, Devin Brosnan, who did not discharge his weapon. The district attorney has indicated that he is minded to bring felony murder charges later in the week.
The killing of Brooks, three weeks after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis sparked nationwide protests against police brutality, reignited demonstrations in Atlanta. On Saturday night, the Wendy’s restaurant was burned down. On Monday a large crowd gathered outside the Georgia state capitol, lamenting the latest police killing and calling for the repeal of specific state laws.
In particular, the demonstrators called for the repeal of the stand your ground law and its citizen’s arrest provision which are thought to exacerbate the dangers faced by black citizens at the hands of police officers or vigilantes.
In the immediate aftermath of Brooks’s death, Rolfe was fired and Brosnan was put on administrative leave. Atlanta’s police chief, Erika Shields, resigned.
The latest incident has prompted a renewed surge in calls for deep reforms for policing in Atlanta and across the country. Stacey Abrams, an African American politician among those being considered for the role of Joe Biden’s Democratic presidential running mate, said: “What happened to Rayshard Brooks was a function of excessive force.”
The mayor of Atlanta, Keisha Lance Bottoms, said the footage of Brooks’s killing “broke my heart. This was not confrontational. This was a guy you were rooting for. That’s the challenge we are all facing as leaders right now – but when these things happen over and over again how do we lead during this time?”
Speaking later, Bottoms announced she was enacting a series of police reforms and that Brooks’s death showed they were needed immediately. She said she would sign a series of administrative orders aimed at examining the department’s policies on the use of force and requiring de-escalation in police encounters. “It is clear that we do not have another day, another minute, another hour to waste,” she said.
At Monday’s family press conference, it was revealed that the film director Tyler Perry, whose studios are located in Atlanta, had donated the costs of Brooks’s funeral. Elsewhere, it was widely reported that the singer Barbra Streisand had bought shares in Disney for Floyd’s six-year-old daughter Gianna, while Beyoncé released a public letter to authorities in Kentucky, demanding justice for Breonna Taylor, an African American woman killed by police in her home in March.
The press conference in Atlanta ended with almost the entire family in tears after another of the victim’s cousins said: “If you ask how this young black man was, look at your own children when they are smiling and happy and you’ll have a glimpse of what we’ve lost.”
The family’s lawyer, L Chris Stewart, responded by saying: “I’m not sure what else America needs to see. Sadly, I’m going to be back here in a couple of months. With another case.”
