ATLANTA — For a fourth straight day Tuesday, demonstrators gathered outside the Atlanta Wendy’s restaurant where Rayshard Brooks, 27, was shot and killed by a police officer Friday.
Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard’s office said any possible charges in the case could come midweek.
WSB-TV reporter Justin Gray spoke with Brooks’ father, Larry Barbine, from his home in Toledo, Ohio, where Brooks lived with him throughout 2019.
“They shot him down like a dog. It’s not right,” Barbine said.
The father said he had no relationship with Brooks as he grew up, but they built a relationship as adults last year.
“I took him on his first sleigh ride, took him fishing for the first time,” Barbine said.
As the district attorney weighs charges against the officers involved in Brooks’ death, Gray took a look at the disciplinary records for officers Garrett Rolfe and Devin Brosnan.
Rolfe’s file shows a dozen incidents. He was cleared on nine of them. In 2017, he was reprimanded for a use-of-force complaint involving a firearm.
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said the reason she immediately issued a new executive order Monday changing use-of-force policy is because she says Brooks’ running should not have led to his death.
“It didn’t have to end that way,” Bottoms said.
“He needs to pay for what he done. He murdered my son. He outright murdered my son,” Barbine said.
According to records that Gray obtained, both officers had recently gone through use-of-force and de-escalation training programs, which are designed to prevent these kinds of tragedies.
Brooks leaves behind three young daughters and a 13-year-old stepson.
Cox Media Group
