Atlanta protesters TORCH Wendy’s restaurant after Rayshard Brooks killed by police
A wave of public outrage has broken out in Atlanta over the killing of black man, Rayshard Brooks, with protesters blocking streets and setting fire to a Wendy’s restaurant where the fatal shooting took place.
Atlanta Police Chief Erika Shields and Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms’ bothe resigned amid calls for the “immediate termination of the officer” who killed Brooks failed to quell the protests which turned violent on Saturday night.
A large crowd of protesters shut down sections of University Avenue, marching towards the parking lot of the fast food restaurant where the shooting took place on Friday.
Protestors appeared to be holding Wendy’s partially responsible for the fatal incident, they torched the drive-through, which is located “dangerously close” to a petrol station.
Employees at the restaurant allegedly were the ones who called police about the “suspicious” man sleeping in his car. Brooks allegedly failed a field sobriety test, and actively resisted when police tried to place him in custody, as a video of the struggle circulating online suggests.
Another video from a surveillance camera released by authorities showed that while Brooks was indeed shot while attempting to flee – he was apparently aiming a taser he had taken from an officer - at his pursuers.
The latest fatal police shooting triggered a new round of protests over police racism and extra-judicial killings. Since George Floyd’s murder at the hands of a police officer in Minneapolis, protests over police brutality and racial inequality have swept across the globe.
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