By Brad Brooks
(Reuters) – Demonstrators took to the streets in Atlanta on Saturday protesting the fatal shooting by police of a black man who had fallen asleep in his car while waiting in line at a fast food drive thru south of downtown.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation said it was probing the killing of Rayshard Brooks, 27, of Atlanta. Police said he resisted arrest after failing a field sobriety test during the Friday night incident.
Protests over Brooks’ killing began Saturday afternoon in Atlanta, and were expected to continue through the day.
The president of the Georgia NAACP, the Rev. James Woodall, has called for the firing of Atlanta Police Chief Erika Shields, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution newspaper.
The killing of Brooks came after weeks of intense racial equality protests across the United States following the death of George Floyd, a black man killed in Minneapolis police custody when an officer kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes.
The Georgia investigators said video taken by an eyewitness was aiding their probe.
The video, posted on social media, shows Brooks on the ground outside his car, struggling with two police officers.
Brooks grabbed the Taser of one officer. After a few seconds, Brooks broke free from the officers and began to run. One officer then used a Taser on him. The pair then run out of the frame of the video.
Gun shots are heard along with someone yelling “I got him!” The video then shows Brooks prone on the ground.
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 Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
Authorities have not yet released the names of the two officers, who were both white.
(Reporting by Brad Brooks in Austin, Texas; Editing by David Gregorio)
