Protesters burn Wendy’s in Atlanta where a black man was killed by police

By Brad Brooks and Dan Whitcomb

(Reuters) – Protesters shut down a major highway in Atlanta on Saturday and set fire to a Wendy’s restaurant where a black man was shot and killed by police as he tried to escape arrest, an incident caught on video and sure to be widely reported fueling more nationwide protests.

The unrest erupted after dark in Atlanta, where earlier in the day Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said she had accepted the swift resignation of Police Chief Erika Shields following the Friday evening death of Rayshard Brooks, 27 years old, at Wendy’s.

Local television footage showed the restaurant burning for more than 45 minutes before firefighters arrived to put out the blaze, protected by a line of police. At that time, the building was reduced to charred ruins next to a gas station.

Other protesters marched onto Interstate-75, stopping traffic, before police used a line of squad cars to hold them back.

“I do not believe this was a justified use of deadly force and I have called for the officer to be fired immediately,” Bottoms said at an afternoon news conference. .

Authorities have not yet released the names of the two officers involved in the shooting, both of whom are white.

Brooks was the father of a young girl who was celebrating her birthday Saturday, his lawyers said. His death, caused by a police bullet, comes after more than two weeks of protests in major cities across the United States in the name of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man who died on May 25 under the knee of a police officer. from Minneapolis.

Street protests broke out Saturday in Atlanta near the scene of the shooting, with more than 100 people calling for the officers to be criminally charged in the case.

Police were called to the Wendy’s on reports that Brooks had fallen asleep in the drive-thru line. Officers attempted to arrest him after he failed a field sobriety test, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

Video shot by a bystander shows Brooks grappling with two police officers on the ground outside the Wendy’s before breaking free and running across the parking lot with what appears to be a police TASER in his hand.

A second videotape from the restaurant’s cameras shows Brooks turning around as he runs and possibly pointing the TASER at the pursuing officers before one of them fires his weapon and Brooks falls to the ground.

Brooks walked about six cars when he turned toward a police officer and pointed what he had in his hand at the officer, GBI Director Vic Reynolds said at another news conference.

“At that point, the Atlanta officer reaches down and retrieves his gun from his holster, discharges it, hits Mr. Brooks in the parking lot and he falls,” Reynolds said.

Lawyers representing Brooks’ family told reporters that Atlanta police did not have the right to use deadly force even though he fired the TASER, a non-lethal weapon, in their direction.

“You can’t shoot someone unless they’re pointing a gun at you,” attorney Chris Stewart said.

Fulton County Prosecutor Paul Howard, Jr. said in an emailed statement that his office “has already launched a thorough and independent investigation into the incident” pending findings from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

Bottoms said Shields, a white woman named chief in December 2016, will be replaced by Deputy Chief Rodney Bryant, a Black man who will serve as interim chief.

(Reporting by Brad Brooks in Austin, Texas and Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles; editing by David Gregorio, Sam Holmes and Kim Coghill)