Atlanta police chief resigns as young black man dies from officer shooting
Washington, Jun 13 (efe-epa).- The death of another young black man, Rayshard Brooks, by shots fired by a white agent caused a deep shock in Atlanta (Georgia, USA) and caused the resignation of the Chief of Police of the city, Erika Shields.
Brooks, 27, died after being shot Friday night in the parking lot of a Wendy’s fast food restaurant in Atlanta, after resisting arrest and fighting with two white agents, the statement said in a statement Saturday. Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI).
The incident, partially captured in a video that quickly circulated on social networks, occurred in the midst of a wave of protests to denounce police violence against minorities, particularly blacks.
Atlanta Mayor African-American Keisha Lance Bottoms announced at a press conference Saturday afternoon that the city’s Chief of Police, Erika Shields, had resigned.
The cessation was reported shortly after local activists demanded Shields’ resignation and dozens of people protesting in Atlanta to report what happened.
“To Mr. Brooks’ family, there are no words strong enough to express how sincerely I regret his loss,” said Bottoms, who is among the Democratic policies former Vice President Joe Biden is considering selecting as a vice presidential candidate in the election. November in the USA
The mayor also opined that what happened was “not a justified use of lethal force” and called for “the immediate dismissal of the agent” who shot Brooks.
The event began around 10:33 pm Friday (02:33 GMT Saturday), when police rushed to the parking lot after receiving a “complaint that a man was asleep in a vehicle parked in front of the (food collection) window. , causing other customers to have to drive around the car “to order food, the GBI said.
Agents tested Brooks for blood alcohol and, after confirming that he was drunk, tried to stop him, but the young man “resisted and started a struggle” between the three, the note said.
“The police officer pulled out an electric shock pistol, and witnesses say that, during the struggle, the man (Brooks) grabbed that electric pistol and took it,” he adds.
The video broadcast on social networks, which the GBI is reviewing, shows the struggle between the agents and you can see how the man manages to get away from them and runs away, chased by one of the policemen.
The video does not show the moment Brooks is shot, only an instant in which the young African-American appears on the ground, but the GBI confirmed that the police officer “shot” him with a firearm and that the wounded man was ” transferred to a local hospital, where he died after the operation. ”
Vic Reynolds, the director of the GBI, said at a press conference that the restaurant’s security cameras captured how Brooks, after fleeing from the agents, turned around and pointed the agent with the electric shock pistol.
“At that time the Atlanta agent grabbed his gun, shot it, and hit Mr. Brooks in the parking lot, and he fell to the ground,” Reynolds explained.
The GBI director promised that his agency would publish the video from security cameras and that he would work to “enlarge” and improve the definition of his frames within his investigation, and asked the public “not to rush when it comes to conclusions “on what happened.
The racism debate is especially alive in Georgia, where two white men shot dead an unarmed young African American man, Ahmaud Arbery, in a video-taped incident last February that sparked the delay in arresting those involved. EFE
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