MORROW, Ga. (AP) — 2 white Atlanta police officers who clashed with Rayshard Brooks acted reasonably during the 2020 encounter that ended with the 27-year-old Black man’s fatal shooting, a specially appointed prosecutor said Tuesday in announcing his decision not to pursue charges against the pair.
Pete Skandalakis, executive director of the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia, said Officer Garrett Rolfe, who shot & killed Brooks in June 2020, & Officer Devin Brosnan will not face any charges, saying they faced a “dynamic situation” that was “quickly evolving.”
Skandalakis said he believes that context is important and acknowledged that encounters between police and the African American community are sometimes “very volatile,” but he said he doesn’t believe race played a role in this instance.
“This isn’t one of those cases,” he said. “This is a case in which the officers were willing to give Mr. Brooks every benefit of the doubt and, you know, unfortunately, by his actions, this is what happened.”
On June 12, 2020, police responded to complaints of a man sleeping in a car in the drive-thru lane of a Wendy’s restaurant. Police body camera video shows the 2 officers having a calm conversation with Brooks for nearly 40 minutes.
Then, when the officers told Brooks he’d had too much to drink to be driving & tried to arrest him, Brooks resisted in a struggle caught on dash camera video. Brooks grabbed a Taser from 1 of the officers & fled, firing it at Rolfe as he ran. Rolfe fired his gun & an autopsy found that Brooks was shot twice in the back.
Rolfe was fired a day after the shooting, but his dismissal was overturned in May 2021 by the Atlanta Civil Service Board. The board found that the city failed to follow its own procedures for disciplinary actions.
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