Charged with ‘murder’ and ‘assault and breach of oath’ respectively after the death of African American Rayshard Brooks in 2020, the two police officers Garrett Rolfe and his colleague Devin Brosnan saw the charges abandoned against them. Rayshard Brooks, 27, died of his injuries on June 12, 2020 in Atlanta, shot and killed by Officer Garrett Rolfe following an altercation.
The drama took place after the two police officers were called to remove Mr. 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 wanted to handcuff him. He then grabbed the Taser from one of the police officers and fled.
The young man had activated the electric gun in the direction of two agents and Garrett Rolfe had replied by shooting him twice in the back. On Tuesday, the prosecutor specially appointed for this case, Peter Skandalakis, announced that he had concluded that in the face of “the rapidly changing circumstances”, the reaction of the police officer had been “objectively reasonable”, lifting the charges against the two officers.
Misunderstanding for the widow of the victim
A decision considered “puzzling” by the lawyers of the widow of Rayshard Brooks, who announced their intention to initiate other legal remedies, according to the local channel FOX5. The American civil rights organization NAACP has demanded that the case be brought before a grand jury.
“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. The death of Rayshard Brooks a few weeks after that of George Floyd, killed in Minneapolis by another white police officer, had given rise to an explosion of anger and the resignation of the chief of police of Atlanta.