A body camera recorded an unidentified officer asking the officer who shot Rayshard Brooks if he was OK after the incident.
“We gon’ take care of you, bro,” the officer said Garrett Rolfe in the clip. “I’m just glad you’re all right. That’s my biggest concern.”
When Rolfe asked if he’d heard anything about Brooks, the officer admitted he had not checked.
Brooks, 27, died last Friday night after a struggle with Rolfe and officer Devin Brosnan. The officers were on the scene because someone called 911 to report Brooks had fallen asleep in the drive-thru of a Wendy’s in Atlanta.
The body camera tape showed Brooks was cooperating with officers while they questioned him and administered a sobriety test. Brooks ultimately failed the test and was placed under arrest. When Brosnan and Rolfe began to cuff him, Brooks physically resisted. The three men struggled and the officers tried to tase him.
Brooks managed to grab one of the weapons before he ran away. He briefly pointed the taser at the officers before Rolfe shot him three times in the back. He was later pronounced dead at a local hospital.
Several other officers also asked Rolfe if he was all right and one of them advised “don’t talk to none of these motherf—–s.”
At one point, he admitted he was still feeling an adrenaline rush from the shooting. He also complained about getting blood on his elbow and asked his colleagues for disinfectant wipes.
“I felt blood on my elbow,” he tells a fellow officer as he searches for a disinfectant wipe. “I don’t know if it’s mine or his I just want to get it off.”
APD released the body camera and dashboard camera footage on Sunday. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation released surveillance tape footage a day before. Those videos, along with clips taken by witnesses, have been circulating on social media.
“It does appear in the video that he is fleeing from the Atlanta police officers, that as he’s fleeing he turns back over his shoulder with what appears to the naked eye to be his Taser that the eyewitnesses told us they saw the individual have that belonged to one of the officers,” Vic Reynolds, director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, said during a news conference. “And as he turned it over, you’ll be able to see on the video the Atlanta officer, literally reach down to get his service weapon and as he gets his weapon, Mr. Brooks begins turning his body away from him, I presume to flee.”
Rolfe was fired and Brosnan is on administrative duty. One day after the shooting, Atlanta Police Chief Erika Shields resigned. The GBI is currently investigating the incident.
Brooks’ family called for justice during a news conference on Monday. He was a father of three girls and stepfather to a 13-year-old boy.
“One of our biggest fears became a reality. Blessing, Memory and Dream will never get to see their father again,” said his niece, Chassidy Evans.
“Rayshard has a family who loves him, who would have glad come and got him so he could be here with us today,” Evans continued. “Not only are we hurt, we are angry. When does it stop? We are not only pleading for justice, we are pleading for change.”
“We must all agree to one fact: he was killed by the Atlanta Police Department,” said Tierra Brooks, his cousin. “The trust that we have with the police force is broken. The only way to heal some of these wounds is through a conviction and a drastic change with the police department.”
Tomika Miller, Brooks’ widow, called for peace because the family wants “to keep his name positive and great.”
“Even though I can’t bring my husband back I know he’s smiling because his name will forever be remember,” Miller said. “I can never get my husband back. I can never tell my daughter, he’s coming to take you skating or to swimming lessons. It’s going to be a long time before I heal.”
