Atlanta police chief resigns after the death of a black man, shot dead by a white agent during his arrest, a case that has rekindled the anger of protesters in the United States, as the mobilization against racism continued Sunday across the world.
Hundreds of protesters blocked a highway on Saturday in the state capital of Georgia and torched a restaurant near which Rayshard Brooks was fatally injured by a police officer. Dozens of people have been arrested, according to CNN, citing police in that city.
Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, whose name has been put forward as a possible running mate of Democrat Joe Biden for the November presidential election, announced the “immediate” resignation of Erika Shields, who headed Atlanta police For more than 20 years.
Rayshard Brooks’ death came Friday evening amid continued protests against police violence and racism in the United States and other countries, following the death in late May of George Floyd, an African-American who has perished asphyxiated by a white policeman in Minneapolis.
– “legitimate” anger –
Rayshard Brooks, 27, had fallen asleep in his car on the drive-through aisle of a restaurant at Wendy’s fast food chain, according to an official report, and establishment employees called the police because that his vehicle was blocking customers.
The man was intoxicated and resisted when two white policemen tried to arrest him, says the Georgia State Bureau of Investigation (GBI).
Footage of the incident, released to the public on Sunday by police, shows a fight between officers and the suspect, who manages to grab a Taser from one of the officers and flees.
But while the GBI claims Mr Brooks “turned around and pointed the Taser at the officer who used his gun”, footage shows the suspect has his back turned to the officer when he is shot and wounded.
Transported to a hospital and operated, he died soon after, say investigators, according to which an agent was injured.
The officer who fired, Garrett Rolfe, was fired from the Atlanta Police Department and the second officer involved was assigned to administrative duties, ABC News television reported.
A lawyer acting on behalf of the victim’s family, Chris Stewart, condemned this disproportionate use of force.
“In Georgia, a Taser is not a lethal weapon () There were other options than shooting it in the back,” he told reporters.
Rayshard Brooks, father of four, celebrated his daughter’s eighth birthday on the same day, according to the lawyer.
Former Georgia African-American Stacey Abrams, another potential running mate for Joe Biden, said Sunday that the protesters’ anger was “legitimate”.
“A man was killed because he was sleeping in an alley and we know this is not an isolated incident,” she explained.
This is the 48th shooting incident involving a police officer that the GBI has been investigating since the start of the year, according to the local Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Fifteen of these shootings were fatal.
– Human chain in Berlin –
In Europe, the day after demonstrations against racism in France, Great Britain or Switzerland, it was the Germans who took to the streets on Sunday, notably forming a human chain in Berlin, while respecting social distancing to avoid a spread of the coronavirus.
In his first reaction to the wave of protest actions on American territory, Russian President Vladimir Putin considered that they were the expression of “deep internal crises”, but that they should not turn “into mayhem and riots “.
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