An Atlanta police officer has been charged with murder for shooting a 27-year-old man in the back, according to the justice officials on Wednesday.
Atlanta District Attorney Paul Howard said police officer Garrett Rolfe had no justification for shooting Rayshard Brooks as Brooks fled, and aggravated the case by kicking Brooks’ body as he lay on the ground bleeding.
He also said that Rolfe and fellow officer Devin Brosnan violated multiple police department regulations after they detained Brooks when he was found sleeping in his car in the drive-up line at a local Wendy’s fast food restaurant on June 12.
“We concluded that, at the time that Mr Brooks was shot, he did not pose an immediate threat of death or serious physical injury to the officers,” Howard said.
Brooks’ shooting came less than three weeks after a Minneapolis police officer’s killing of handcuffed African American George Floyd on May 25 fuelled a national uproar over racism and police brutality.
Brooks’ death ignited a fresh round of angry protests, and forced the resignation of Atlanta’s police chief.
On Sunday, thousands of protesters blocked an interstate highway and set alight the Wendy’s where 27-year-oldwas killed last Saturday.
After a brief struggle Brooks ran off with one of the officers’ Tasers and, as he swung his arm back to point it at them, Rolfe shot Brooks twice in the back.
The issue of whether Rolfe reasonably believed he was in danger was at the heart of deciding if he should be charged.
Justin Miller, an attorney for Brooks’ family, said having the officers charged was just “the starting point.”
“Step two is conviction on all charges,” he told a press conference.
“Justice is not something that is going to be easy in this case,” he said.
The charges were announced as Republicans in the US Senate unveiled police reform legislation that focused on better training and disclosure of officers’ use of force, but did not weaken legal protections that insulate them from charges of abuse.
Meanwhile, in Geneva, the brother of George Floyd called on the UN Human Rights Council to set up an independent commission to investigate the killings of African Americans by police.
In a video message, Philonise Floyd said, “You, at the United Nations, are your brothers’ and sisters’ keepers in America, and you have the power to help us get justice for my brother”.
“When people raise their voices to protest the treatment of black people in America they are silenced. They are shot and killed,” he said.
Brooks had been asleep in his car at a Wendy’s fast food restaurant drive-through late Friday, and employees called police to complain he was blocking other customers, an official report said.
Protests which spread first around the country then the globe last week, since, have forced a conversation on the legacies of slavery, colonialism and white violence against people of color, as well as the militarization of police in America.
Earlier, tens of thousands gathered in Washington, where Mayor Muriel Bowse renamed the area outside the White House “Black Lives Matter Plaza”.