Sunday, 14 June_Atlanta's police chief resigned on Saturday (June 13), the city's mayor said, as protesters took to the streets hours after the fatal shooting by police of a black man who had fallen asleep in his car at a Wendy's fast-food restaurant drive-thru line.
Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said she accepted the resignation of police chief Erika Shields after the killing of Rayshard Brooks, 27, of Atlanta. Dozens of protesters gathered by late afternoon around the spot south of downtown where the man was shot and killed. "I do not believe that this was a justified use of deadly force and have called for the immediate termination of the officer," Bottoms said at a news conference.
Atlanta's police did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Authorities have not yet released the names of the two officers involved in the shooting, both of whom were white.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) said it was investigating the incident. Police said Brooks resisted arrest after failing a field sobriety test. Protests began Saturday afternoon and were expected to continue through the day.
The killing of Brooks came after weeks of intense racial equality protests across the United States following the death of George Floyd, a black man killed in Minneapolis police custody when an officer kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes. The Georgia investigators said video taken by an eyewitness was aiding their probe. GBI director Vic Reynolds said during a news conference that video captured by cameras inside the Wendy's restaurant appeared to show that Brooks had one of the officer's Tasers in his hand when he fled.
"It does appear in the video that he is fleeing from the Atlanta police officer's that, as he's fleeing, he turns back over his shoulder with what appears to the naked eye to be this taser ... and as he turned over, you'll be able to see on the video the Atlanta officer literally reached down to get his service weapon and as as he gets his weapon, Mr. Brooks begins turning his body away from him I presume to flee and it looks like that's when the discharge of the weapon goes off," Reynolds said.
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