New details emerge of dad's shooting death in fast food car park
A Georgia county prosecutor has announced a fired Atlanta police officer has been charged with a felony murder in the shooting death of Rayshard Brooks in the carpark of a fast-food restaurant last week.
The death of the 27-year-old Mr Brooks – another in a long line of African-Americans killed by police – has further heightened racial concerns in the United States.
Garrett Rolfe, the white officer who shot Mr Brooks on June 12 and was fired the next day after surveillance video showed his actions, faces 11 charges including felony murder and assault with a deadly weapon, Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard told a news conference in Atlanta.
Rolfe faces the possibility of life in prison or the death penalty if convicted, Mr Howard added.
Mr Howard said Rolfe kicked Mr Brooks after shooting him and another white officer who was at the scene, Devin Brosnan, stood on the wounded man's body as he was fighting for his life.
He recommended the judge hold Rolfe without bond.
Brosnan will co-operate with prosecutors and was charged with aggravated assault and violations of his oath of office, Mr Howard added.
Brosnan has been placed on administrative leave.
Mr Brooks did not pose an immediate threat of death to the officers and acted in a calm and "almost jovial" manner and co-operated with the police as the incident initially unfolded, Mr Howard told reporters.
He said he reviewed eight videos of the incident.
Video of the incident, which escalated from a call about a man who appeared intoxicated in his car at the Wendy's restaurant drive-thru lane into a fatal shooting, appeared to show Mr Brooks taking one of the officer's Taser devices, and turning and pointing it at Rolfe before being shot.
The shooting sparked new demonstrations in Georgia's capital after the sometimes turbulent protests that erupted in Atlanta and across the US in response to George Floyd's death on May 25 in Minneapolis under the knee of a white officer.
The Wendy's where Brooks was shot was burned down after his killing.
Police reform package announced
Elsewhere, Senate Republicans announced an ambitious police reform package including an enhanced use-of-force database, restrictions on chokeholds and new commissions to study law enforcement and race.
The 106-page bill is not as sweeping as a Democratic proposal set for a House vote next week but it shows how swiftly the debate has been transformed since Floyd's death.
The Senate's lone black Republican, Tim Scott of South Carolina, led a task force of senators in compiling the package and spoke of his own experiences being stopped by police.
"We hear you," he said to the families of people killed by police.
"We're listening to your concerns."
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