Dramatic scenes broke out in Atlanta last night, with protesters burning down a restaurant, after a man was shot dead by police while trying to escape arrest.
Rayshard Brooks, 27, was shot dead on Friday night after police were called to the restaurant Wendy's over reports that he had fallen asleep in the drive-through line.
The incident, which was captured on camera, sparked street protests in the area on Saturday, with demonstrators setting fire to the restaurant and blocking traffic on a nearby highway. Images showed the restaurant in flames for more than 45 minutes before fire crews extinguished the blaze around 11.30pm.
Police chief Erika Shields quit her job over the killing, while the officer who allegedly fired the gun, named as Garrett Rolfe, was sacked over the incident.
Another officer involved in the incident, named as Devin Bronsan, was put on administrative leave.
The protests follow more than two weeks of demonstrations in major cities across the US sparked by the death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old man who died on May 25 in Minneapolis while in police custody.
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, announcing the police chief’s resignation, said: "I do not believe that this was a justified use of deadly force."
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation, which is investigating the shooting, said the deadly confrontation started with officers responding to a complaint that a man was sleeping in a car blocking the restaurant’s drive-thru lane.
The GBI said Mr Brooks failed a sobriety test and then resisted officers’ attempts to arrest him.
Video shot by a bystander captures Mr Brooks struggling with two officers on the ground outside the eatery before breaking free and running across the parking lot with what appears to be a police Taser in his hand.
A second videotape from the restaurant’s cameras shows Mr Brooks turning as he runs and possibly aiming the Taser at the pursuing officers before one of them fires his gun and Mr Brooks falls to the ground.
Mr Brooks ran the length of about six cars when he turned back towards an officer and pointed what he had in his hand at the policeman, said Vic Reynolds, director of the GBI during a press conference.
“At that point, the Atlanta officer reaches down and retrieves his weapon from his holster, discharges it, strikes Mr. Brooks there on the parking lot and he goes down,” he adds.
Mr Brooks was the father of a young daughter who was celebrating her birthday on Saturday, his lawyers said.
They added that Atlanta police had no right to use deadly force even if he had fired the Taser, a non-lethal weapon, in their direction.
“You can’t shoot somebody unless they are pointing a gun at you,” attorney Chris Stewart said.
Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard, Jr., said in an emailed statement that his office “has already launched an intense, independent investigation of the incident” while it awaits the findings of the GBI.
Mayor Bottoms said former chief Shields, who was appointed head in December 2016, would be replaced by deputy chief Rodney Bryant, who will serve as interim chief.
