The Fulton County District Attorney, Paul Howard, has stated that the Atlanta officers involved in the fatal shooting of Rayshard Brooks will be charged and that arrest warrants were issued.
The officer, Garrett Rolfe, who fired the fatal shot will be charged with felony murder, a charge that carries a possible sentence of life without parole or the death penalty.
He will also be charged with three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, one charge of criminal damage and seven violations of oath of office. Officer Devin Brosnan, who was on the scene, will be charged with aggravated assault with a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and two counts of violation of oath of office.
“We concluded and considered it as one of our important considerations that Mr. Brooks never presented himself as a threat,” Howard said.
Rayshard Brooks was killed on Friday night in the parking lot of an Atlanta Wendy’s restaurant. Officers were responding to a report of a man sleeping in his car in the drive-through.
After administering the field sobriety test, Rayshard Brooks struggled with the officers and then ran away with a stun gun he took from one of the officers, Vic Reynolds, director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, stated.
The 27-year-old appeared to point the stun gun at the officers, at which point, Rolfe fired his gun and hit Brooks twice. Just because he appeared to have a stun gun, L. Chris Stewart, the Brooks’ family attorney, said in a statement that it wasn’t a reason to use deadly force.
“In Georgia, a taser is not a deadly weapon,” Stewart said. “I’ve had cases where officers have used tasers on victims and they argue with us in court that tasers aren’t deadly.”
Determining to charge the officers, Howard said they observed that Brooks was “calm,” “cordial” and “really displayed a cooperative nature.” He included that officers never informed him he was under arrest for driving under the influence, as is required by the department.
