Atlanta police chief resigns after fatal shooting

ATLANTA (AP) — Atlanta’s police chief resigned Saturday hours after a Black man was fatally shot by officers during a struggle following a field sobriety test. Authorities said the slain man grabbed an officer’s Taser but was running away when he was shot.

Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms announced the resignation of Police Chief Erika Shields during a news conference Saturday as about 150 protesters marched outside the Wendy’s restaurant where Rayshard Brooks, 27, was fatally shot shot Friday evening. The mayor also said she called for the immediate firing of the officer who opened fire on Brooks.

“I do not believe this was a justified use of deadly force and I have called for the officer to be fired immediately,” Bottoms said.

She said it was Shields’ own decision to step down as police chief and that she would remain with the city in an unspecified role. Interim Corrections Chief Rodney Bryant would serve as acting police chief until a permanent replacement is found.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation, which is investigating the shooting, said the deadly confrontation began when officers responded to a complaint that a man was sleeping in a car blocking the restaurant’s drive-thru lane. The GBI said Brooks failed a field sobriety test and then resisted officers’ attempts to arrest him.

The GBI released security camera video of the shooting Saturday. The footage shows a man running away from two police officers as he raises a hand, which is holding some type of object, towards a police officer a few steps behind him. The officer draws his gun and fires as the man continues to run, then falls to the ground in the parking lot.

GBI Director Vic Reynolds said Brooks grabbed a Taser from one of the officers and appeared to point it at the officer as he ran away, prompting the officer to reach for his gun.

“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,” GBI Director Vic Reynolds said during the a news conference the day protesters gathered at the scene of the shooting and in other areas of Atlanta.

Security camera video does not show Brooks’ initial struggle with police.

The shooting came at a time of heightened tensions over police brutality and calls for reform across the United States following the May 25 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Atlanta is one of the American cities where large crowds of demonstrators took to the streets.

A crowd of about 150 protesters, including members of Brooks’ family, gathered Saturday outside the restaurant where he was shot. Police closed streets for several blocks around the restaurant as protesters marched peacefully through the streets. There was a brief, tense standoff with Georgia state troopers who lined up to block protesters as they attempted to march on a nearby interstate highway. The demonstrators eventually turned back.

Among the protesters was Crystal Brooks, who said she was the sister-in-law of Rayshard Brooks.

“He wasn’t hurting anyone,” she said. “The police approached the car and, even though the car was parked, they took him out of the car and started fighting with him.”

She added: “He did grab the Taser, but he just grabbed the Taser and ran away. »

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 police officers involved should go to jail and met with crowds of demonstrators in downtown Atlanta, telling demonstrators she understood their frustrations and fears. She appeared alongside Bottoms as the mayor made an impassioned plea for protesters to go home when things turned violent with storefronts smashed and police cars set on fire.

Days later, Shields fired two police officers and benched three others, caught on camera on May 30 during a hostile confrontation with two students whose car was stuck in traffic caused by the protests. The officers yelled at the two men, shot them with Tasers and dragged them from the vehicle. However, when prosecutors charged six police officers with crimes committed during the incident, Shields openly questioned the timing and merits of the charges.

Brooks’ shooting two weeks later raised more questions about the Atlanta department. In a statement, Shields said she chose to resign “out of a deep and abiding love for this city and this department.”

“It’s time for the city to move forward and build trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve,” Shields said.

Reynolds said his officers worked through the night interviewing witnesses and reviewing videos. He said their findings show that Brooks tried to fight off two officers when they tried to arrest him and that at one point he managed to take a Taser away from one of them.

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

During a short foot chase, Brooks “turns around and it appears at that point he is pointing a Taser at an Atlanta officer,” Reynolds said. That’s when the officer pulled out his gun and shot Brooks, he said, estimating the officer fired three times.

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

Howard said Saturday that his office “has already launched an intense and independent investigation into the incident” without waiting for results from the GBI.

The officers involved in the shooting have not been identified.

Brooks died after being taken to an Atlanta hospital. One of the officers was treated and released for unspecified injuries.

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Bynum reported from Savannah, Georgia.