Thursday, 06 May 2021_The US city of Atlanta has reinstated a white police officer fired over fatal shooting of Rayshard Brooks, an American Black man last year.
The Atlanta Civil Service Board wrote that Garrett Rolfe was “not afforded his right to due process” over his dismissal, noting several instances where the city had failed to “comply with several provisions” in the Atlanta City Code.
Rolfe is charged with felony murder, aggravated assault and other crimes in the case. A trial date has not been set.
Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms has one again defended her initial decision to fire Rolfe.
"Given the volatile state of our city and nation last summer, the decision to terminate this officer, after he fatally shot Mr. Brooks in the back, was the right thing to do," she said in a statement.
Then-Fulton County District Attorney also said Brooks had never presented himself as a threat and appeared “almost jovial” in police body-cam footage.
Brooks is one of multiple cases of African American and members of the minority groups fatally shot by the US police which have drawn the attention of Black Lives Matter movement and civil rights activists.
The June 12 deadly shooting came two weeks after the police killing of African-American George Floyd in Minneapolis, heightening tensions across the United States over police brutality and racism and led to protests in the US and abroad.
Protesters gathered on the steps of Atlanta City Hall on Wednesday, with many of them holding signs with slogans such as "Stop Police Killing", "Justice for Rayshard Brooks" and "Jail Killer Cops Now."
Some protesters called for the city to fire Rolfe again.
"Rayshard Brooks needed a ride home, what he wound up with was a bullet in his back," said a local activist.
An activist tweeted that, “Rayshard Brooks' killer, Garrett Rolfe, should never be allowed to hold a position of power over other people ever again, in Atlanta or anywhere else. The fact that he has been reinstated as an APD officer is as unsurprising as it is infuriating.”
Another activist called the reversal of Rolfe’s dismissal outrageous.
Gerald Griggs, vice president of the Atlanta chapter of the NAACP, the largest US civil rights organization, said under no circumstances should Rolfe go back on street patrol.
"He does not deserve to be a police officer in this or any city, and we are going to protest," Griggs said. "The community is upset and this will not stand."
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