ATLANTA — A witness has come forward to describe the moments before an officer shot and killed Rayshard Brooks at a Wendy's restaurant in southwest Atlanta.
Officers Garrett Rolfe and Devin Brosnan responded to the call after an employee at the restaurant called 911 because Brooks had passed out behind the wheel in the drive-thru line.
Body camera video showed the officers giving Brooks a field sobriety test after waking him up and getting him to move his car out of the drive-thru line.
Shortly after the sobriety test, officers try to arrest Brooks for DUI, and a scuffle ensues.
Joel Mack said he was also in the drive-thru line that night and witnessed the whole thing. He spoke with Channel 2’s Kristen Holloway on Tuesday about what he saw that night.
“The shorter officer pulled out his Taser and told him, ‘You’re going to get Tased. You going to get Tased,’ When he, Mr. Brooks, grabbed it pushed it away,” Mack said.
Mack told Holloway that Brooks resisted arrest.
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“That’s when the tall officer got back on top of Mr. Brooks and he tried to — you know. I believe it was a chokehold,” Mack said.
He said Brooks was able get up with the Taser in his hands and started running.
“I don’t know if it was fired, I can’t say, but I did see Mr. Brooks point the Taser back at one of the officers and then immediately turned back to running and shortly afterwards I heard three pops,” Mack said. “I saw Mr. Brooks falling to the ground.”
Mack said he saw Rolfe with the Taser in his left hand and his gun in his right.
“The shorter officer was on his intercom saying shots fired and they were standing over his body,” Mack said.
Mack said both officers jumped on Brooks to arrest him, then one officer checked for a pulse and they got off him.
“Very much in disbelief from what I saw,” Mack said. “It was bunch of different other ways that could’ve been handled and that was probably the worst possible outcome.”
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