'She doesn't understand': Widow's struggle to tell daughter of dad's shooting death
The widow of a black man fatally shot outside a fast food restaurant has shared her grief.
Rayshard Brooks, 27, was killed outside a Wendy’s on Friday night in Atlanta, in the US state of Georgia.
Mr Brooks had been speaking with officers Devin Brosnan and Garrett Rolfe who believed he was intoxicated. Mr Rolfe, who has since been fired, is accused of killing Mr Brooks.
An autopsy released on Sunday night found Mr Brooks was shot twice in the back.
Tomika Miller, who shares an eight-year-old daughter named Blessing with Mr Brooks, told US news outlet NBC’s Today Show her husband “was a great man” and she’s “feeling numb from everything”.
They were raising four children together – Ms Miller’s son from a previous relationship along with three girls named Blessing, Memory and Dream.
Angry protesters set fast food chain on fire after cops kill unarmed dad
Protesters storm the streets after cop shoots, kills sleeping black man
She added she did not know how to explain the situation to her daughter.
“I don’t know how I’m gonna to explain it to her because I still can’t understand it right now, and I’m really thinking that she doesn’t understand that her father is never coming back home,” Ms Miller told the Today Show.
“This morning when I woke up, my daughter asked me, ‘Are we still having swimming lessons?’, and I didn’t know how to answer that because that’s something that her dad told her they were gonna do today.”
In video shot from Officer Brosnan’s body camera, Mr Brooks is heard saying on Saturday it was his daughter’s birthday.
Speaking to the media on Monday, the family’s lawyer Justin Miller said Blessing “had her birthday party on the same exact day that they (the family) found out their father was killed”.
“She had her birthday dress on, as all of you have heard, she had cupcakes and friends over,” he told reporters.
“She was supposed to go skating with her dad and that didn’t happen of course.”
Ms Miller told the Today Show her late “loving, kind” husband “was an awesome father”.
She told CBS she wants both police officers jailed.
“If it was my husband who shot them, he would be in jail. He would be doing a life sentence,” Ms Miller told CBS.
“They need to be put away.”
Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@yahoonews.com.
You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and download the Yahoo News app from the App Store or Google Play.
