White Atlanta cops shoot dead a 27-year-old black man as they give chase after wrestling with him

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Protests in Atlanta over the death of Rayshard Brooks have turned tense, after flames broke out at the Wendy’s fast food restaurant where police fatally shot the man whom investigators say grabbed an officer’s taser and pointed it as he fled from police. 

After 10pm on Saturday, a fully involved fire was seen inside the Wendy’s where they shooting took place, and thick smoke billowed through the air, as multiple smaller fires burned in the parking lot outside of the building.

The building was engulfed in flames which shot through the air from the roof, and no emergency responders were on the scene after nearly an hour. 

Atlanta fire officials said that they were unable to send trucks through the crowds of protesters blocking the roads around the Wendy’s, in fear of endangering both the firefighters and the protesters. As the fire grew, fears mounted that it could ignite a neighboring gas station.

Demonstrators also shut down all lanes of Interstate 75 near the Wendy’s for more than an hour. Police in riot gear were seen advancing on the protesters and making arrests at around 10pm. Traffic was restored on the northbound lanes of the interstate by around 10.30pm. 

Atlanta Police Chief Erika Shields resigned on Saturday following the fatal shooting of Brooks, 27, outside of the Wendy’s drive-thru late on Friday night.

Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms announced Shield’s resignation, saying the city’s top cop offered to ‘immediately step aside as police chief so that the city may move forward, with urgency, in rebuilding the trust so desperately needed throughout our communities.’ 

Meanwhile, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation has released new surveillance footage of the moment of the fatal shooting, which has drawn massive protests and allegations of racism and police brutality.

Atlanta police were called to the restaurant on a complaint that a man was sleeping in a car blocking the drive-thru lane as customers waited in line. Police say he failed a field sobriety test and then began to fight as the officers tried to arrest him.

Previously released bystander video showed Brooks grappling with two officers on the pavement, throwing punches, and grabbing one of the officer’s tasers. The other officer fires his taser at Brooks, which appears to have no effect, and Brooks sprints away.

The newly released surveillance video shows Brooks fleeing across the parking lot from officers, and turning and pointing something at the police, which the GBI said was the stolen police taser. 

An officer then drops the taser that he had fired at Brooks, retrieves his service gun from its holster, and fires at Brooks. 

Previously released bystander video shows Brooks in a scuffle as officers tried to take him into custody in a parking lot of a Wendy’s on University Avenue at around 10:30pm on Friday.

Brooks is seen in the video getting away from the grasp of two police officers and running away from them in the parking lot. He managed to take a Taser from one of the officers before trying to run away.

One of the officers is seen getting up and giving chase with what appears to be a Taser. 

Moments later, gunshots are heard, though Brooks or the officers are not seen at that point in the bystander video. 

The shooting came at a time of heightened tension over police brutality and calls for reforms across the U.S. following the May 25 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Atlanta was among U.S. cities where large crowds of protesters took to the streets.

A crowd of demonstrators gathered Saturday outside the Atlanta restaurant where Brooks was shot. 

Gerald Griggs, an attorney and a vice president of Atlanta’s NAACP chapter, estimated there were 150 people protesting at the scene as he walked with them Saturday afternoon.

‘The people are upset,’ Griggs said. ‘They want to know why their dear brother Rayshard Brooks was shot and killed when he was merely asleep on the passenger side and not doing anything.’ 

THIS VIDEO CONTAINS GRAPHIC CONTENT AND EXPLICIT LANGUAGE 

Shields, the ousted police chief, said in a statement: ‘For more than two decades, I have served alongside some of the finest men and women in the Atlanta Police Department. Out of a deep and abiding love for this City and this department, I offered to step aside as police chief.’

‘APD has my full support, and Mayor Bottoms has my support on the future direction of this department. I have faith in the Mayor, and it is time for the city to move forward and build trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve,’ Shields continued.

Georgia Bureau of Investigation Director Vic Reynolds said his agents worked through the night interviewing witnesses and reviewing video. 

He said their findings show that Brooks tried to fight off two officers when they tried to arrest him and at one point managed to take a Taser away from one of them.

A security camera recorded Brooks ‘running or fleeing from Atlanta police officers,’ Reynolds said. ‘It appears that he has in his hand a Taser.’

During a short foot chase Brooks ‘turns around and it appears at that time he points a Taser at an Atlanta officer,’ Reynolds said. That’s when the officer drew his gun and shot Brooks, he said, estimating the officer fired three times.

‘In a circumstance like this where an officer is involved in the use of deadly force, the public has a right to know what happened,’ Reynolds said of the decision to quickly release the restaurant surveillance footage. 

Atlanta Deputy Police Chief Timothy Peek told reporters late Friday that both officers deployed their Tasers in an attempt to subdue the suspect but were unable to ‘stop the aggression of the fight.’

Reynolds said his agents will turn over results of their investigation to Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard, whose office will decide whether criminal charges are warranted against either of the officers.

Howard said Saturday his office had already gotten involved.

‘My office has already launched an intense, independent investigation of the incident,’ Howard said in a statement, saying members of his staff ‘were on scene shortly after the shooting, and we have been in investigative sessions ever since to identify all of the facts and circumstances surrounding this incident.’

Demonstrators including members of Brooks’ family gathered Saturday outside the restaurant where he was shot. 

Police shut down streets for several blocks around the restaurant as protesters marched peacefully in the streets. There was a short, tense standoff with Georgia state troopers who lined up to block protesters as they tried to march onto a nearby interstate highway. The demonstrators eventually turned away.

Among those protesting was Crystal Brooks, who said she is Rayshard Brooks’ sister-in-law.

‘He wasn´t causing anyone any harm,’ she said. ‘The police went up to the car and even though the car was parked they pulled him out of the car and started tussling with him.’

She added: ‘He did grab the Taser, but he just grabbed the Taser and ran.’

Shields, Atlanta’s police chief for less than four years, was initially praised in the days following Floyd´s death last month. She said the Minnesota officers involved should go to prison and walked into crowds of protesters in downtown Atlanta, telling demonstrators she understood their frustrations and fears. 

She appeared at Bottoms´ side as the mayor made an impassioned plea for protesters to go home when things turned violent with smashed storefronts and police cruisers set ablaze.

Days later, Shields fired two officers and benched three others caught on video May 30 in a hostile confrontation with two college students whose car was stuck in traffic caused by the protests. 

The officers shouted at the pair, fired Tasers at them and dragged them from the vehicle. When prosecutors charged six officers with crimes in the incident, however, Shields openly questioned the timing and appropriateness of the charges.

Stacey Abrams, the Georgia Democrat who gained national prominence running for governor in 2018, tweeted Saturday of the shooting that ‘sleeping in a drive-thru must not end in death.’

‘The killing of #RayshardBrooks in Atlanta last night demands we severely restrict the use of deadly force,’ Abrams’ tweet said. 

‘Yes, investigations must be called for – but so too should accountability.’

The officers involved in the shooting was not identified. Once its investigation is complete, the case will be turned over to the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office for review.

Atlanta, like scores of other major American cities, has been roiled by protests following the May 25 death of George Floyd.

Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, died in the custody of the Minneapolis Police Department after one officer, Derek Chauvin, was seen kneeling on his neck for almost nine minutes, cutting off his air supply. 

Chauvin has been charged with second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.

Three other Minneapolis police officers have also been charged with aiding and abetting.

Atlanta police have come under scrutiny for actions against protesters in recent weeks.

Six police officers – all of whom are black except for one – are facing criminal charges after they were seen violently arresting two college students for violating curfew.

Body camera footage shows a group of Atlanta police officers confronting 22-year-old Messiah Young and 20-year-old Taniyah Pilgrim in a car in downtown traffic caused by protests sparked by the killing of Floyd.

Video shows the officers shouting at the students, firing Tasers at them and dragging them from the car. 

Throughout the confrontation, the couple can be heard screaming and asking what they did wrong. 

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