Atlanta police chief resigns after officer's fatal shooting

AP Photo/David Goldman
(Image credit: Erika Shields)

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.

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Tim O'Donnell

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.