Atlanta, June 16 (RHC)-- Protests intensified in Atlanta after a white police officer shot dead an unarmed 27-year-old African American man named Rayshard Brooks in the parking lot of a Wendy’s fast-food restaurant on Friday. 

The encounter was caught on surveillance camera and by a witness.  Police approached Brooks after he had fallen asleep in his car.  The police questioned Brooks, patted him down and gave him a breathalyzer test. During a scuffle, he grabbed one of the officers’ stun guns and attempted to run away.  Another officer then shot Brooks in the back two times. 

The officer, Garrett Rolfe, can then be heard on a bodycam video saying: “I got him.”  The Fulton County medical examiner has ruled Brooks’s death a homicide.  Less than 24 hours after the shooting, Atlanta Police Chief Erika Shields resigned.  The officer involved in the shooting was fired.

Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard said, “[Brooks] did not seem to present any kind of threat to anyone, and so the fact that it would escalate to his death just seems unreasonable.” 

Chris Stewart, a lawyer for the Brooks family, said: "That’s the case law here, that Tasers are not deadly weapons.  So, before we even hear from their lawyers, who are going to say the same old thing they always say, you cannot have it both ways.  You can’t say he ran off with a weapon that could kill somebody, when you say it’s not deadly.”