WASHINGTON (Dispatches) - A Georgia special prosecutor has announced that murder and assault charges will be dismissed against two Atlanta police officers involved in the fatal shooting of Rayshard Brooks in June 2020, saying the officers acted reasonably in response to a deadly threat.
“Both acted as reasonable officers would under the facts and circumstances of the events of that night,” special prosecutor Peter Skandalakis said. “Both acted in accordance with well-established law and were justified in the use of force regarding the situation.”
Officer Rolfe shot the 27-year-old African-American man while he was running away and resisting arrest.
The special prosecutor, Peter Skandalakis, said Rolfe was justified in shooting Brooks, noting that, “Given the quickly changing circumstances, was it objectively reasonable that he used deadly force? And we conclude it was.”
Rolfe and Brosnan had responded to a report of a man sleeping in his car in the drive-thru line at a fast-food restaurant.
In a 40-minute calm interaction, they gave Brooks an alcohol test and, after it proved positive, sought to arrest him for driving under the influence.
After a brief struggle, police say Brooks was able to wrest away with one of the officers’ Tasers before being shot twice in the back.
Rolfe was fired days after the shooting by then-Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, but a year later, he was reinstated and put on administrative leave after the Atlanta Civil Service Board ruled he was improperly dismissed.
Brosnan was placed on administrative leave after the incident.
Brooks’ death came two weeks after the killing of George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, who was murdered by police in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 2020, and added fuel to nationwide protests against police brutality and racial injustice.
Attorney L. Chris Stewart, a lawyer for Brooks’ family, told a press conference they were “heartbroken, confused” by the decision and would “continue our fight.”
Also on Tuesday, a former Louisville detective pleaded guilty to providing false information to obtain a search warrant for Breonna Taylor’s home that led to a 2020 raid in which the Black woman was fatally shot.
Kelly Goodlett admitted to conspiring with another ex-detective to “falsify a warrant affidavit for Breonna Taylor’s home” and to making “false statements to cover up the false affidavit.”
She faces up to five years in prison, a fine of $250,000 and three years of supervised release.
Believing it was a break-in, Walker fired his gun, wounding one police officer. Police, who had obtained a controversial no-knock warrant to make a drug arrest, fired more than 30 shots back, killing Taylor.
Calls have been growing for U.S. police reform after the brutal killing of Floyd. He died as former policeman Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for more than eight minutes in Minneapolis.