Cops Wake Up Sleeping Father in Wendy’s, Shoot Him in The Back, Killing Him
One would think that with the recently heightened tensions between police and the citizens, that police would attempt to tone down their escalation tactics. Sadly, however, as the tragic case out of Atlanta illustrates, one would be wrong. Another black man was killed this weekend after he fell asleep in the drive-thru of a Wendy’s restaurant.
The death of Rayshard Brooks, a 27-year-old father from Atlanta has already caused a massive backlash in the city. Amid immediate protests sparked over the weekend, Atlanta Police Chief Erika Shields resigned her position. The officer, identified as Garrett Rolfe, who shot Brooks in the back twice as he ran away has also been fired. Another officer involved in the encounter, Devin Brosnan, has been placed on administrative duty.
“There is a clear distinction between what you can do and what you should do,” Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said in a news conference Saturday. “I do not believe this was a justified use of deadly force.”
Neither do we.
After killing Rayshard, police released the body camera footage the next day. Several bystander cameras and surveillance camera footage were also released on Sunday. They paint a disturbing picture, showing the last moments of Rayshard’s life.
According to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, Atlanta police responded to a call of a man asleep in Wendy’s drive-thru. Instead of simply trying to wake Brooks up, some “see something, say something” citizen decided to involve police — which proved to be fatal.
The first body camera video, worn by Brosnan, shows him approach the sleeping father of three in his car around 10:40 p.m. on Friday night. As CNN reports:
Brooks is apparently asleep behind the wheel, and Brosnan knocks on the window to wake him up. The officer opens the door and says to Brooks, “Hey man, you’re parked in the middle of the drive-thru line here.” At first, Brooks does not appear to respond.When he does wake up, Brooks appears disoriented and incoherent. Brosnan asks whether he’s tired and then tells Brooks to pull over into a parking spot. Eventually, Brooks moves the vehicle after some more prodding from the officer, who had to wake Brooks a second time.Brosnan approaches Brooks’ parked vehicle and asks him whether he’s been drinking. Brooks tells the officer he had only one drink. As Brooks searches for his license, Brosnan radios to make several requests for another officer to conduct a DUI test.
Brooks appears to be disoriented and probably should not have been driving. He tells Brosnan that he is “visiting.”
“Who are you visiting?” the officer asks.
“My mother’s gravesite,” Brooks says.
“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that,” Brosnan says.
When officer Rolfe arrives on the scene, he asks Brooks how he got to the Wendy’s, but Brooks doesn’t remember being in the drive-thru.
After Rolfe gives Brooks a Breathalyzer, Brooks admits to the officers that he’d been drinking because it was his daughter’s birthday.
“I think you’ve had too much to drink to be driving,” Rolfe says. “Put your hands behind your back.”
At this time a struggle ensues and the two officers force Brooks to the ground. Brooks then grabs the taser from one of the officer’s hands
“Hands off the f***ing Taser,” one of the officers says. “Hands off the Taser.”
Brooks then gets up and starts running away after hitting Rolfe in the face.
In the surveillance video released by the GBI on Sunday, Brooks is seen running away as Rolfe follows him. Rolfe then switches from his taser to his handgun before Brooks turns and points the taser at him, a fatal mistake.
Rolfe fired three shots at Brooks, two of which hit him in the back and killed him.
The body camera footage also captured audio of bystanders yelling at the officers, with one telling them, “Both of your careers are definitely done, because you just shot a man, for no reason.”
L. Chris Stewart, an attorney for Brooks’ family, said the officers did not have to shoot Brooks, adding that a Taser is not a deadly weapon.
“If the officer had been a bit more empathetic and a bit less scared, we probably wouldn’t have a dead client,” Stewart said.
Below are several videos of the initial stop and field sobriety test.
https://youtu.be/kuhhT_cBtFU
https://youtu.be/jnHecVdUysQ
https://youtu.be/PHucMaXZ8SU
https://youtu.be/SrAInGp0HYM
https://youtu.be/19--VWzggWc
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