Atlanta mayor orders police to de-escalate confrontations after Rayshard Brooks shooting

Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms on Monday announced immediate reforms within the police department, including orders requiring police officers to de-escalate situations and imposing a duty to intervene when officers see another officer using excessive force.

Bottoms told a media briefing that she felt after the death of Rayshard Brooks she could not wait for an advisory council to come up with recommendations to reform the police.

"It pissed me off. It makes me sad. It makes me frustrated, and there's nothing I can say that will change what happened Friday," she said.

"It was clear that we do not have another day, another minute, another hour, to waste," she said, adding the police must find better ways to handle confrontations.

A police union official urged against a rush to judgment.

"We don't know everything. We are basing what we saw on a video that has no context to it," Champion told Reuters. "I do believe that the powers that be,the mayor and the DA are just trying to appease the rioters," saidVince Champion, southeast regional director for the International Brotherhood of Police Officers.

An autopsy found that 27-year-old Brooks, who was Black, was shot twice in the back late Friday by a white officer who was trying to arrest him at a fast-food restaurant for being intoxicated behind the wheel of his car. Brooks tried to flee after wrestling with officers and grabbing a Taser from one of them.

Family urges change

Pleading through tears Monday, Brooks's family demanded changes in the criminal justice system and called on protesters to refrain from violence amid heightened tensions across the United Statesthree weeks after George Floyd's death in Minneapolis.

"Not only are we hurt, we are angry," said Chassidy Evans, Brooks's niece. "When does it stop? We're not only pleading for justice. We're pleading for change."

About 20 of Brooks's children, siblings, cousins and other family members sobbed at a news conference as more than 1,000 people gathered not far away at an NAACP-led protest outside the Georgia Capitol.

Floyd's death on May 25 after a white Minneapolis officer put his knee on the Black man's neck touched off demonstrations and scattered violence across the U.S., and Brooks's killing rekindled those protests in Atlanta. The Wendy's restaurant where Brooks was shot was burned down over the weekend.

Evans said there was no reason for her uncle "to be shot and killed like trash in the street for falling asleep in a drive-thru."

"Rayshard has a family who loves him who would have gladly come and got him so he would be here with us today," she said.

Relatives described Brooks as a loving father of three daughters and a stepson who had a bright smile and a big heart and loved to dance. His oldest daughter learned her father was slain while celebrating her eighth birthday with cupcakes and friends, wearing a special dress as she waited for Brooks to take her skating, said Justin Miller, an attorney for the family.

"There's no justice that can ever make me feel happy about what's been done," said Tomika Miller, Brooks's widow. "I can never get my husband back. I can never tell my daughter he's coming to take you skating or for swimming lessons."

She asked those demonstrating in the streets to "keep the protesting peaceful," saying: "We want to keep his name positive and great."

Calls for reform

The NAACP protest took place as lawmakers were returning to work after a three-month coronavirus shutdown. Several Democratic lawmakers joined protesters and called for Georgia to pass reforms, including the repeal of the state's citizen's arrest and stand-your-ground laws.

While some Republican leaders in Georgia pushed back against swift action on some proposals, RepublicanHouse Speaker David Ralston endorsed rapid passage of a hate-crimes law, telling lawmakers that failure to act would be "a stain on this state we can never wash away."

Cities across the U.S. are responding to calls for reform while the protests set off by the death in Minneapolis continue.

In Chicago, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said a panel of residents, activists and one police official will review the police department's policy on when officers can use force. Albuquerque, N.M., Mayor Tim Keller said he wants a new department of social workers and civilian professionals to provide another option when someone calls 911.

And New Jersey's attorney general ordered police in the state to begin publicly divulging names of officers who commit serious disciplinary violations.

After Brooks's killing, Officer Garrett Rolfe, who fired the fatal shots, was fired, and the other officer at the scene, Devin Brosnan, was put on desk duty. Police Chief Erika Shields resigned a day after the shooting.

Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard said he hopes to decide by midweek whether to charge the officers. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation was put in charge of the investigation.

Police had been called to the fast-food restaurant because of complaints that a car was blocking the drive-thru lane. An officer found Brooks asleep in the car.

Police video showed Brooks co-operating with the officers for more than 40 minutes until a breath test determined his blood-alcohol level was over the legal limit. When one of the officers moved to handcuff him, Brooks tried to run and the officers took him to the ground.

Brooks broke free and took off with a Taser but was shot. Rolfe told authorities that Brooks had fired the Taser at him.

Asked why Brooks ran, family attorney L. Chris Stewart suggested he may have feared for his life.

"They put George Floyd in handcuffs, and he was subsequently killed," Stewart said. "So just getting put in handcuffs if you're African American doesn't mean, 'Oh, you're going to get nicely taken to the back of a police car.'"

LISTEN |Protesting and police in the age of surveillance:

Front Burner18:19Protesting and police in the age of surveillance

We are living in a time of ubiquitous recording. There are cameras are everywhere; capturing the last moments of George Floyds life; recording the fatal shooting of Rayshard Brooks by Atlanta Police on Friday night; and documenting another angle of Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation Chief Allan Adam being punched by an officer during an arrest in Fort McMurray. There are also live streams of protests and civilian footage of the police response on the streets. But with cameras everywhere comes surveillance, too. Today we talk with Washington Post technology reporter, Heather Kelly, about the double-edged sword of having digital eyes everywhere.