Authorities in the U.S. state of Georgia said Saturday a man was shot and killed in a late-night struggle with Atlanta police outside a fast-food restaurant after he failed a field sobriety test and resisted arrest.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) said it was asked by the Atlanta Police Department to investigate the shooting, which happened at a Wendy’s restaurant late Friday.
The GBI said its agents were reviewing video taken by witnesses.
The agency also posted to Twitter a plea for witnesses to come forward, saying some at the scene “chose not to be interviewed by GBI agents.”
The shooting came at a time of heightened tension over police brutality and calls for reforms across the US following the May 25 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Atlanta was among US cities where large crowds of protesters took to the streets.
Officers were responding to a complaint of a man in a vehicle parked in the drive-thru who was asleep, causing customers to drive around the vehicle.
After he failed a field sobriety test, the officers attempted to place the man into custody, according to the GBI.
But he resisted and a struggle ensued, and the two officers deployed their Tasers in an attempt to subdue the man, according to local police.
Georgia Bureau of Investigation Director Vic Reynolds said Brooks tried to fight off two officers when they tried to arrest him and at one point managed to take a Taser away from one of them.
During a short foot chase Brooks “turns around, and it appears to the eye, at that time he points a Taser at an Atlanta officer,” Reynolds said.
“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 said.
The man was transported to a local hospital where he died after surgery.
The GBI later identified him as 27-year-old Rayshard Brooks of Atlanta.
One officer was treated for an injury and discharged from the hospital.
The officers involved in the shooting were not identified.
Once its investigation is complete, the case will be turned over to the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office for review.
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