Atlanta police shooting 鈥榳as a homicide鈥
Print Edition
The death of Rayshard Brooks, a black American killed by a white police officer in Atlanta, Georgia, on Friday, was a homicide caused by gunshot wounds to the back, the Fulton County Medical Examiner鈥檚 office said on Sunday.
Brooks鈥 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, it added.
Brooks鈥 fatal encounter with police came after an employee of a Wendy鈥檚 restaurant in Atlanta phoned authorities to say that someone had fallen asleep in his car in the restaurant鈥檚 drive-through lane.
Caught on the officer鈥檚 body camera and a surveillance camera, the encounter seemed friendly at first, as Brooks cooperated with a sobriety test and talked about his daughter鈥檚 birthday.
鈥淚 watched the interaction with Mr Brooks and it broke my heart,鈥 Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said. 鈥淭his was not confrontational. This was a guy that you were rooting for.鈥
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鈥檚 video showed.
A video from the restaurant鈥檚 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鈥檚 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鈥 case to be criminally charged late on Saturday, the Wendy鈥檚 restaurant went up in flames.
On Sunday, police offered a US$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.
Lawyers for Brooks鈥 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.
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