Rayshard

Rayshard Brooks

Rayshard Brooks

fell asleep in the parking lot

In June 2020, a white police officer from Atlanta, Georgia, shot and killed a 27-year-old black man, Rayshard Brooks. On that day, the man parked his car near the restaurant and began to wait for his turn to make an order without leaving the car.

A few minutes later, Brooks fell asleep. After 40 minutes, the police officers who arrived at the scene woke him up and asked him to move the car to another place, but during the dialogue with him, the officers felt a sharp smell of alcohol. The man passed a breathalyzer test, which confirmed that he was under the influence of alcohol. According to the police, while the officers were trying to detain Brooks, he began to resist, forcing them to use a taser against him. Police say that the man tried to grab the taser from the officer, then got out of the car and began to run away. The officers opened fire on him, shooting him three times in the back. After being hospitalized, Brooks died from blood loss and internal injuries.

The death of the man outraged the public, the day after the incident, protesters burned down the restaurant next to which Brooks was killed. The man’s relatives sued the city and the police department, but the investigation of this incident reached an impasse, and in May 2021, the city completely reinstated the officer who shot Brooks.