An attorney for the family of Rayshard Brooks said that a witness has come forward and claimed that a stray bullet fired by police hit a vehicle carrying kids.
“Let me tell you, and show you why shooting in a crowded parking lot is so reckless, and so unnecessary of what he did,” lawyer L. Chris Stewart said during a press conference Monday. “A witness today sent us his vehicle, which was hit by one of Officer Rolfe’s bullets while he and his kids were in the car. A couple feet up, and we would’ve had another loss of life.”
Stewart said this around the 9:50-mark in the embed above.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is investigating the 27-year-old man’s death.
Public Affairs Director Nelly Miles told Law&Crime in an email that they didn’t have “any evidence to support this claim” regarding the stray bullet. From the message:
If there are any witnesses that have additional information about this or any aspect of this case, we urge them to contact the GBI at 1.800.597.TIPS (8477).
In video of the incident, the officer appears to fire three shots at Brooks. An autopsy released Sunday showed that Brooks was shot twice in the back.
Brooks was shot on Friday night at a Wendy’s in Atlanta, Georgia. Police said they were responding to a call of him sleeping in his vehicle in the restaurant’s drive-thru. They questioned the man, and a breathalyzer test allegedly returned a .108. As seen on video, officers attempted to arrest him, but he resisted.
The GBI said Brooks took an officer’s Taser, fled and pointed the Taser at a cop:
Officers pursued Brooks on foot and during the chase, Brooks turned and pointed the Taser at the officer. The officer fired his weapon, striking Brooks.
Officer Garrett Rolfe, identified as the shooter, was fired over the incident. He is 27. Another officer at the scene, Devin Brosnan, was placed on administrative duty. The Fulton County District Attorney’s Office is examining the case for possible charges of murder, felony murder with an underlying charge of aggravated assault, or voluntary manslaughter.
At the press conference, Stewart said police could have ended the situation when Brooks said he could walk to his sister’s nearby home. The attorney defended Brooks’s decision to run, suggesting that the man had a reason to fear for his safety.
“Well, they put George Floyd in handcuffs, and he was subsequently killed,” he said. “So just getting put in handcuffs, if you’re African American doesn’t mean, ‘Oh, you’re going to get nicely taken to the back of a police car.’ So especially watching this video of George Floyd over and over again, his reaction may have been, ‘I’m not getting put in handcuffs.’ So we can’t just toss it out because he resisted. George Floyd didn’t, and it ended the same way.”
[Screengrab via Fox News]
