Atlanta police have released to Channel 2 Action News the body camera footage from the shooting death of Rayshard Brooks.
Brooks, 27, was shot and killed by an Atlanta police officer in the parking lot of a Wendy’s off University Avenue Friday night.
We’ll bring you LIVE coverage of the investigation and protests from last night, on Channel 2 Action News.
The shooting led to the abrupt resignation of Atlanta Police Chief Erika Shields and Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms called for the immediate termination of the officer.
Garrett Rolfe, identified as the officer who shot and killed Brooks, was fired Saturday night. The other officer involved in the call, Devin Brosnan, has been placed on administrative duty.
District Attorney Paul Howard said Sunday that a decision on charges against Rolfe will be made alter this week.
BREAKING: DA Paul Howard just told @CNN that a decision on charges being brought against former APD officer Garrett Rolfe will be made “sometime around Wednesday.” Rolfe, who joined the police force in 2013, fired the fatal shots that killed 27-year-old Rayshard Brooks.@wsbtv
— Michael Seiden (@SeidenWSBTV) June 14, 2020
[Minute-by-minute: Officer who shot Rayshard Brooks has been fired]
Channel 2 has uploaded the raw, unedited body camera videos from Rolfe and Brosnan. WARNING: The videos contain graphic images and explicit language.
If you have trouble loading the videos below, click here for Rolfe’s or click here for Brosnan’s.
According to investigators, the night started with police receiving calls about a man sleeping in a parked car in the fast-food restaurant’s drive-thru lane.
In the body camera video, Officer Brosnan finds Brooks in the car and knocks multiple times telling him to open the door.
“Hey man, you’re parked in the middle of the drive thru line here.”
Brooks acknowledges the officer nearly a minute later.
“You’re blocking traffic. You were sleeping when I walked up here."
The officer tells Brooks several times to pull over into a parking spot. A minute or two later, Brosnan approaches Brooks’ car again and asks why he fell asleep and if he had been drinking.
Brooks told the officer he was waiting on his sister and had not had much to drink. Brosnan asks for Brooks license and tells him to stay in the car. The officer calls for backup for a DUI-certified officer.
While Bronsan and Brooks wait for the other officer to arrive, they have a cordial conversation.
“You here for a visit?” Bronsan asked.
“I’m visiting," Brooks said. When Bronsan asked who he was visiting, Brooks said he was visiting his mother’s gravesite.
Minutes later, Officer Rolfe arrives at the scene. Body camera footage captures him asking Brooks a series of questions.
- “Do you know where you are?”
- “I’m in Forest Park, Old Dixie Highway.”
- “So, you think you’re in Forest Park right now?"
- “I’m on old Dixie Highway. Clayton County.”
- "No you’re not."
- “Well, Forest Park, Georgia?”
- “No.”
- “Jonesboro, Georgia”
- "Nope.”
Rolfe asks Brooks to step out of the car and asks to pat him down. Brooks agrees. After the search, Rolfe has Brooks step away from the car. Rolfe asks to perform a field sobriety test and Brooks takes it.
At one point, Brooks asks if the officers can just let him go home.
“My daughters are there right now,” Brooks said. “My daughter’s birthday was yesterday.”
After the test, Rolfe asks to do a breathalyzer test. Brooks admits to drinking. Rolfe asks again if he can do the test and Brooks agrees.
“I don’t want to refuse anything,” Brooks said.
Rolfe administers the breathalyzer test, which registered a blood-alcohol level of .108%, slightly above the legal limit of .08%.
Rolfe tells Brooks he has had too much to drink to be driving and for Brooks to put his hands behind his back. Brooks appears to pull away on the footage and a struggle breaks out.
The body camera hits the pavement but you can still hear the struggle between officers and Brooks.
“Stop fighting! You’re going to get Tased!" "Hands off the Taser!”
Brooks grabs one of the officers’ Tasers and takes off running. You can hear at least three shots fired. People who witnessed the shooting can be heard in the rest of the video.
Surveillance video previously released captured the chase. GBI Director Vic Reynolds said in a news conference Saturday afternoon that video corroborated that Brooks grabbed an officer’s Taser, ran a few feet away and then pointed it at officers before he was shot.
Lawyers for Brooks’ family said that Tasers are not considered “deadly weapons” by police and that Brooks should not have been shot and killed.
Mayor Bottoms agreed that deadly use of force was not necessary.
WARNING: The surveillance video below contains graphic images.
© 2020 Cox Media Group
