June 14 (Reuters) – Protesters on Saturday caused the closure of a major highway in Atlanta, United States, and burned down a Wendy’s restaurant where a black man was shot dead by police when he tried to ‘escape arrest.
This tragedy risks again exacerbating tensions in the United States after the emotion raised by the death, last week of another black man, George Floyd, last week during his arrest by police officers in Minneapolis.
His death sparked widespread anger against police violence against blacks, peppered with violent incidents across the United States. It has also led to protests around the world, especially in countries where the George Floyd affair echoes other deaths that have occurred during arrests.
Local television showed the restaurant ablaze for 45 minutes before the firefighters arrived under the protection of a line of police officers. When the fire was put out, all that was left of the restaurant was ruins, a stone’s throw from a gas station.
City Police Chief Erika Shields resigned earlier on Saturday after Rayshard Brooks’ death on Friday night, recorded in multiple videos. “I do not think this was a justified use of lethal force and I asked that the officer’s duties be terminated immediately,” said Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance. Bottoms during a press conference.
The police department fired the officer accused of shooting the 27-year-old. Another officer involved in the incident was suspended. Both are white.
Rayshard Brooks, the father of a baby girl, celebrated his birthday on Saturday, his lawyers said. Police were called to the scene after Rayshard Brooks dozed off in his car in the driveway of the restaurant, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
After a negative blood alcohol test, the two officers attempted to take him into custody. A passer-by then filmed Rayshard Brooks struggling, before escaping the two policemen and running through the parking lot with what looks like a police electric pulse Taser in his hand.
In another video filmed by a restaurant’s surveillance camera, he is seen turning around and possibly targeting the police with the Taser. We then see one of the police officers at his heels draw his gun and Rayshard Brooks collapse.
Lawyers for the Brooks family have told reporters that police are prohibited from using this weapon, even when threatened with a non-lethal weapon. The Fulton County District Attorney’s Office has opened an independent investigation into the events. (Brad Brooks in Austin, Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles and Aakriti Bhalla in Bengalore, Gilles Guillaume for the fran_ause version)
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