ATLANTA _ Atlanta's police chief resigned Saturday, less than 24 hours after police responding to a complaint fatally shot a 27-year-old black man said to have fallen asleep in the drive-through line at a Wendy's fast-food restaurant.
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said Erika Shields, who had served as chief since December 2016, will remain with the department in some other capacity.
Bottoms also called for the immediate termination of the officer who shot Rayshard Brooks of Atlanta after a scuffle late Friday as police tried to arrest him. Brooks, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said, resisted arrest when police attempted to take him into custody after he failed a sobriety test.
"While there may be debate as to whether this was an appropriate use of deadly force, I firmly believe that there is a clear distinction between what you can do and what you should do," Bottoms said at a news conference Saturday evening. "I do not believe that this was a justified use of deadly force."
A cellphone video posted on social media appears to show the man running away from two police officers before he was shot. Additional video, the GBI said, showed the man grab an officer's Taser, flee the scene, then turn and point the Taser at the officer.
The death in a city roiled by complaints of excessive police force comes amid global street demonstrations demanding justice for George Floyd, an unarmed black man who was killed in police custody last month in Minneapolis.
Atlanta police were dispatched to a Wendy's a few miles south of downtown at 10:33 p.m. to investigate a complaint that a man had fallen asleep in a parked car at the drive-through, according to a GBI statement.
After Brooks failed a field sobriety test, the GBI said, officers said they attempted to take him into custody. Brooks resisted, the officers said, and an altercation ensued in which an officer deployed a Taser.
Shaky cellphone video shows two officers struggling with a man on the ground. The man appears to grab a Taser, break free and run away across the parking lot and out of the frame of the camera. An officer gives chase, and then another officer follows. Then the sound of three shots can be heard.
A few seconds later, a figure can be seen in the distance running to a figure on the ground.
On Saturday afternoon, the GBI said that the officer's body camera was knocked off during the physical struggle, preventing the recording of the entire incident. However, the bureau obtained additional surveillance video from the scene, which it said it would release to the public Saturday night.
According to the GBI, Brooks was transported to a local hospital, where he died after surgery.
One officer was treated for an injury and subsequently discharged from the hospital. Neither officer has been identified.
"The killing of #RayshardBrooks in Atlanta last night demands we severely restrict the use of deadly force," Stacey Abrams, a Georgia Democrat and former gubernatorial candidate, said on Twitter on Saturday. "Yes, investigations must be called for _ but so too should accountability. Sleeping in a drive-thru must not end in death."
Atlanta's police department is already facing sharp criticism after officers were captured on video two weeks ago shattering the windows of a sedan in which two black college students were riding and using Tasers on both of them. Within 24 hours, Bottoms fired two of the officers and this week she fired an additional two officers.
Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard has charged six officers with using excessive force in the incident.
"This is why people are outraged in this city," said Antonio Brown, an Atlanta City Council member, who joined dozens of protesters outside the Wendy's early Saturday after getting a call after 1 a.m. "It's incredibly important that our police, especially now, don't resort to firing a gun _ not unless someone is firing a gun right at you."
The city needed to take move swiftly to enact legislation forbidding the use of excessive force, Brown said.
"There is no time for a task force at this point," he said. "We need to act immediately to address excessive force by police in this city."
Whatever happened in the altercation, Brown said, he saw no reason why officers could feel that their life was in jeopardy enough to justify firing their weapon.
"He was fleeing, he did not pose danger to the people," he said. "If the man was drunk, there should be some deescalating procedures in place... Given the environment we're in right now, using your weapons should be the ultimate last resort."
On Saturday morning, dozens of protesters gathered outside the Wendy's holding signs that read "Black Lives Matter" and "No Justice No Peace."
Auri, 27, a flight attendant who lives in Atlanta's Mechanicsville neighborhood and declined to give her last name, stood on the sidewalk waving a handmade sign that said: "SERIOUSLY? Another cop killing."
"This has been happening for years," she said. "The moment it happened in my neighborhood I felt on fire. It could have been my boyfriend, my brother, my father."
As the crowd swelled, protesters stepped out onto the four-lane road and blocked cars from passing.
Mystified, an Asian woman got out of her vehicle and walked toward the protesters.
"I just want to get a burger," she cried, throwing her hands in the air.
"We are taking over the streets," a man bellowed into a bullhorn.
"Wendy's is closed. APD needs to be closed. We need to bring back the Black Panthers. We need to police our own communities."
Before long, a white man in a green Kia Soul drove up to the protesters and tried to inch his vehicle through the crowd.
A tense standoff ensued as protesters holding placards blocked his path, knocking on the hood of his car and posting protest fliers on his windshield and driver's window.
"Turn around!" they cried. "Turn around!"
Eventually, after 10 minutes, the man shifted his car into reverse and turned around.
The crowd punched their fists in the air and cheered.
Standing in the middle of the street amid the protesters, Atlanta City Councilwoman Joyce Sheperd said she shared their anger and was committed to taking immediate action to address police use of force.
"What happened here last night was unjust," she said. "We've got to reform our police department. Period."
