Atlanta police chief resigns after officer's fatal shooting


Not too long ago, Atlanta Police Chief Erika Shields drew praise after a video showing her listening attentively to protesters surfaced. But Shields has now resigned, the city's Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said Saturday, following the news that an Atlanta police officer fatally shot a 27-year-old black man identified as Rayshard Brooks, who was parked and asleep at a Wendy's drive-thru Friday night.
After Brooks failed a sobriety test, a cellphone video purportedly shows him struggling with two officers in the parking lot before grabbing one of their tasers. A Wendy's surveillance video shows Brooks then running away from the officers, stopping, and apparently pointing the stun gun at one of the pursuing officers, who drew his weapon, fired, and killed him.
Multiple police officers in Atlanta have been suspended, fired, and charged in recent weeks for using excessive force amid protests against police brutality. "What has become abundantly clear over the last couple of weeks in Atlanta is that while we have a police force full of men and women who work alongside our communities with honor, respect, and dignity, there has been a disconnect with what our expectations are and should be, as it relates to interactions with our officers and the communities in which they are entrusted to protect," Bottoms said at a Saturday evening news conference, adding that she didn't consider Friday's shooting "a justified use of deadly force."
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Shields will reportedly move to another role in the department. Read more at The Washington Post and ABC News.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.
-
Green goddess salad recipe
The Week Recommends Avocado can be the creamy star of the show in this fresh, sharp salad
-
The Biden cover-up: a 'near-treasonous' conspiracy
Talking Point Using 'Trumpian' tactics, the former president's inner circle maintained a conspiracy of silence around his cognitive and physical decline
-
Crossword: May 31, 2025
The Week's daily crossword puzzle
-
Driver rams van into crowd at Liverpool FC parade
speed read 27 people were hospitalized following the attack
-
2 Israel Embassy staff shot dead at DC Jewish museum
speed read The suspected gunman chanted 'free, free Palestine'
-
Bombing of fertility clinic blamed on 'antinatalist'
speed read A car bombing injured four people and damaged a fertility clinic and nearby buildings in Palm Springs, California
-
Suspect charged after 11 die in Vancouver car attack
Speed Read Kai-Ji Adam Lo drove an SUV into a crowd at the Lapu Lapu Day festival
-
Kenya arrests alleged ant smugglers
speed read Two young Belgians have been charged for attempting to smuggle ants out of the country to exotic pet buyers
-
Judge ends Eric Adams case, Trump leverage
Speed Read Federal corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams were dismissed, as requested by Trump's Justice Department
-
Texas arrests midwife on felony abortion charges
Speed Read Maria Margarita Rojas and an employee at one of her clinics are the first to be criminally charged under Texas' near-total abortion ban
-
South Carolina to execute prisoner by firing squad
speed read Death row inmate Brad Sigmon prefers the squad over the electric chair or lethal injection, his lawyer said