The resignation of Atlanta Police Chief Erika Shields and Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms’ call for the “immediate termination of the officer” who killed Brooks failed to quell the protests which turned violent on Saturday night.
A massive crowd of protesters shut down I-75/85 at University Avenue, marching towards the parking lot of the fast food restaurant where the Friday shooting took place.
Apparently holding Wendy’s partially responsible for the fatal incident, protesters torched the drive-through, which is located “dangerously close” to a gas station.
Employees at the restaurant apparently were the ones who initially 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 indicates.
The fatal police-involved shooting triggered a new round of protests over police racism and extrajudicial killings. Since George Floyd’s death in a botched chokehold arrest attempt in May in Minneapolis, protests over police brutality and racial inequality have swept across all major US cities.