US prosecutor dismisses charges against Atlanta officers in 2020 killing of Black man

Two white US police officers will not face charges for the 2020 fatal shooting of a Black man who was shot twice in the back in the city of Atlanta, a prosecutor has said.

The prosecutor dismissed the charges against the officers Garrett Rolfe and Devin Brosnan for the death of Rayshard Brooks.

Officer Rolfe shot the 27-year-old African-American man while he was running away and resisting arrest.

The special prosecutor, Peter Skandalakis, said Rolfe was justified in shooting Brooks, noting that, "Given the quickly changing circumstances, was it objectively reasonable that he used deadly force? And we conclude it was.”

Rolfe and Brosnan had responded to a report of a man sleeping in his car in the drive-thru line at a fast-food restaurant.

In a 40-minute calm interaction, they gave Brooks an alcohol test and, after it proved positive, sought to arrest him for driving under the influence.

After a brief struggle, police say Brooks was able to wrest away with one of the officers’ Tasers before being shot twice in the back.

Rolfe was fired days after the shooting by then-Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, but a year later, he was reinstated and put on administrative leave after the Atlanta Civil Service Board ruled he was improperly dismissed.

Brosnan was placed on administrative leave after the incident.

Brooks' death came two weeks after the killing of George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, who was murdered by police in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 2020, and added fuel to nationwide protests against police brutality and racial injustice.

Attorney L. Chris Stewart, a lawyer for Brooks' family, told a press conference they were "heartbroken, confused" by the decision and would "continue our fight."

Also on Tuesday, a former Louisville detective pleaded guilty to providing false information to obtain a search warrant for Breonna Taylor's home that led to a 2020 raid in which the Black woman was fatally shot.

Ex-Louisville police officer pleads guilty to Breonna Taylor cover-up

A former detective in Louisville, Kentucky has pleaded guilty to providing false information to obtain a search warrant that led to the killing of Breonna Taylor, a Black woman, in 2020.

Kelly Goodlett admitted to conspiring with another ex-detective to "falsify a warrant affidavit for Breonna Taylor's home" and to making "false statements to cover up the false affidavit."

She faces up to five years in prison, a fine of $250,000 and three years of supervised release.

The 26-year-old Taylor and her friend, Kenneth Walker, were sleeping in her apartment around midnight on March 13, 2020, when they heard a noise at the door.

Believing it was a break-in, Walker fired his gun, wounding one police officer. Police, who had obtained a controversial no-knock warrant to make a drug arrest, fired more than 30 shots back, killing Taylor.

Calls have been growing for US police reform after the brutal killing of Floyd. He died as former policeman Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for more than eight minutes in Minneapolis.

US police violence: Three Arkansas officers suspended after video captures beating

A new video of US police violence surfaces on social media, showing American cops kneeing on a man, brutally punching his face and smashing his head against cement ground in Arkansas.

Since his death, the House of Representatives has twice passed the George Floyd Justice in Policing bill, but Senate Republicans have opposed the legislation.

The bill would implement sweeping federal reforms, including banning the use of chokeholds like the one that killed Floyd.

Floyd’s murder by the police led to national outrage about the deaths of unarmed Black Americans at the hands of US law enforcement, triggering nationwide and worldwide protests.

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