The abandonment of charges against two white police officers charged after the death of African-American Rayshard Brooks aroused misunderstanding on Tuesday.
Rayshard Brooks, 27, died of his injuries on June 12, 2020 in Atlanta after Officer Garrett Rolfe shot him following an altercation. Garrett Rolfe was then charged with “murder”and his colleague Devin Brosnan of “assault and violation of his oath”.
The prosecutor specially appointed for this case, Peter Skandalakis, announced on Tuesday that he had concluded that in the face of “the rapidly changing circumstances”, the reaction of the police officer had been “objectively reasonable” and that the charges against the two officers would be dropped.
Two bullets in the back
The death of Rayshard Brooks, a few weeks after that of George Floyd, killed in Minneapolis by another white policeman, had given rise to an explosion of anger and the resignation of the chief of police of Atlanta.
On this subject: The death of a black man shot by a white police officer in Atlanta reignites tensions
The tragedy took place after the two police officers were called to remove Rayshard Brooks, asleep in his car, from the drive-in aisle of a Wendy’s restaurant. The young man, alcoholic, had however been cooperative for more than half an hour before the situation degenerated when the agents had wanted to handcuff him: he had seized the Taser from one of the police officers and had ran away.
He then fired that stun gun at them and Garrett Rolfe shot him twice in the back.
A decision rejected by the NAACP
Lawyers for Rayshard Brook’s widow have denounced a “puzzling” decision and announced their intention to seek further legal remedies, according to local channel FOX5, and the American civil rights organization NAACP demanded that the case goes to a grand jury.
Georgia NAACP demands #RayshardBrooks case be presented to grand jury https://t.co/EB6ahCUnHX
— Georgia_NAACP (@Georgia NAACP)January 23, 2022
“There is no statute of limitations on a murder case, and there will be no statute of limitations on our efforts to get justice for Rayshard Brooks,” the NAACP president commented in Georgia State, Gerald Griggs.
News in the Breonna Taylor case
Also on Tuesday, in a separate case, a female police officer pleaded guilty to providing false information to obtain a search warrant, the execution of which led to the death of another African American, Breonna Taylor. Kelly Goodlett, who has since resigned, admitted to having “falsified” with another police officer the request for a search warrant addressed to a judge, and then to have lied “to cover up the initial false statements”. She faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Read also: Jury acquits police officer charged over death of African-American Breonna Taylor
On March 13, 2020, three police officers in Louisville, Kentucky’s largest city, broke into the home of 26-year-old Breonna Taylor in the middle of the night as part of a drug trafficking investigation targeting her ex-boyfriend. friend. His new companion, Kenneth Walker, believed they were burglars and fired a shot with a legally owned gun. The police responded and Breonna Taylor received around 20 bullets.
Breonna Taylor’s death hadn’t garnered much attention until the death of George Floyd. The name of the young woman and that of Rayshard Brooks had then been chanted in all the anti-racist demonstrations of the summer.