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."
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Shields will reportedly move to another role in the department. Read more at The Washington Post and ABC News.
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