The death of 27-year-old Rayshard Brooks, which the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s office ruled a homicide, was the latest killing of a black man to kindle nationwide outrage at police brutality and racial injustice.
“We’re tired and we are frustrated. Most importantly we’re heartbroken, so we need justice for Rayshard Brooks,” his cousin, Tiara Brooks, said at a family news conference.
“The trust that we have in the police force is broken. The only way to heal some of these wounds is through a conviction and a drastic change in the police department,” she added.
Family members spoke of Mr Brooks as a warm family man who loved to take his daughter skating. One man, after breaking down in tears, left distraught, shouting, “Somebody took my cousin!”
More than 1,000 people marched on the Georgia state Capitol in Atlanta on Monday calling for justice for Mr Brooks and for other African Americans killed.
“We are going to take over the Capitol every single day until they do their job,” the Reverend James Woodall, president of the state NAACP civil rights group, told the crowd, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and other media reported.
As the crowd chanted for justice, the Georgia Assembly rebooted its 2020 session on Monday with a renewed call to pass a hate-crime law. Georgia is one of four US states without a hate-crime law on the books. Hate-crime laws add punishments to offenses deemed to be racially motivated.
"RIP Rayshard" is spray painted on a sign as as flames engulf a Wendy's restaurant during protests. Source: AAP
The death of Mr Brooks, and the separate shooting of a black jogger Ahmaud Arbery near the coastal town of Brunswick in February involving a former officer, has driven calls for racial justice in the state.
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said she would issue a series of administrative orders to accelerate a review of policing, telling a City Council meeting on Monday there was a need to review the department’s use of force and training.
Rayshard Brooks pictured with his family. Source: Twitter 'pvtriots'
Call to a restaurant
The fatal encounter on Friday night began when police responded to a call Mr Brooks had fallen asleep in his car in a Wendy’s restaurant drive-through lane.
but when an officer moved to arrest him, Mr Brooks struggled with him and another officer before breaking away across the parking lot with what appeared to be a police Taser in his hand.
A video from the restaurant’s cameras showed Mr Brooks turning as he ran and possibly aiming the Taser at the pursuing officers, both white, before one of them fired his gun and Mr Brooks fell.
Police body camera footage shows 27-year-old Rayshard Brooks complying with police moments before he was shot to death. Source: Atlanta Police Department
An attorney for Mr Brooks’ family, Chris Stewart, said the police should have let Mr Brooks walk home rather than pursue and shoot him.
“It didn’t have to go to that level,” he said. “Where is the empathy in just letting him walk home?”
Atlanta’s police chief, Erika Shields, resigned over the shooting. The officer suspected of killing Mr Brooks was fired, and the other officer involved was put on administrative leave.
Prosecutors will decide by midweek whether to bring charges, Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard said on Sunday.
Mr Brooks’ death reignited protests in Atlanta after days of worldwide demonstrations against racism and police brutality prompted by the death of black American George Floyd when a Minneapolis policeman knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes on May 25.Brooks’ widow, Tomika Miller, implored the public to protest peacefully in her husband’s name.
“We want to keep his name positive,” she said.
