Body camera footage has revealed Atlanta police officers only found a wallet on Rayshard Brooks in a search carried out shortly before he was killed—as the Atlanta Police Department announced the officer who shot him has been fired, Newsweek reports.
Brooks, a 27-year-old African American man, was fatally shot by a police officer in the parking lot of a Wendy’s drive-thru restaurant during a struggle on Friday evening, authorities said.
The shooting prompted protesters on Saturday night to set fire to the Wendy’s restaurant where Brooks was killed and block traffic on a nearby highway. Police fired tear gas in a bid to disperse the crowd outside the restaurant, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Early on Sunday, Officer Steve Avery, a spokesman for the Atlanta Police Department, confirmed to Newsweek the officer who shot Brooks has been terminated while another has been placed on administrative duty.
The terminated officer was identified as Garrett Rolfe, who was hired in October 2013. Devin Brosnan, who was hired in September 2018, was placed on administrative duty.
The move came after Atlanta Police Chief Erika Shields resigned on Saturday after Brooks’ death fueled new protests in the city after those prompted by the death of another black man, George Floyd, in Minneapolis police custody had died down.
Protests against police brutality and racism sparked by Floyd’s death—as well as other recent killings of black people, including Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia in March—have rocked cities across the U.S. for almost three weeks.
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