Rayshard Brooks’ widow said in a TV interview Monday that she can’t watch footage of her husband being fatally shot in the back by Atlanta police because she’s “already in enough pain.”
“I’m already in enough pain right now so to see anything of my husband being shot down … I couldn’t see that. I can’t stomach that right now,” Tomika Miller said on NBC’s “Today” show.
Miller added that she’s dreading Brooks’ funeral because it means explaining death to their four young kids, particularly to her daughter who turned 8 on Friday, the day he was killed.
“Then I have to relive it all over again,” Miller said. “And I have to explain to her what death is and how we gotta keep going and we gotta be brave for your father.”
Brooks, whose death has been ruled a homicide, was shot twice in the back during a foot chase following a field sobriety test in the parking lot of an Atlanta Wendy’s restaurant, where he had fallen asleep in the drive-thru line, officials said.
Officer Garret Rolfe and his partner Devin Brosnan chased Brooks after he grabbed one of their Tasers and ran off. He was seen in footage appearing to fire the Taser.
Rolfe, who has been fired, could face a felony murder charge, Fulton County’s top prosecutors said Sunday. Brosnan has been put on administrative leave and Atlanta Police Chief Erika Shields resigned over the shooting.
Brooks’ family attorney L. Chris Stewart said there was no reason for deadly force to be used on a man who was running away from police, according to NBC News.
“That man’s life should not have been taken so callously simply for running away with a non-lethal weapon,” Stewart said.
“We have no idea what justice is anymore. Is it getting somebody fired? Is it somebody getting arrested?” he said Monday.
“Justice won’t ever bring him back depending on what you want to define it as, but what we want is for him to be arrested and what we want is for better understanding of community-based policing in this country.”
In an interview on “CBS This Morning,” Miller said she wants Rolfe and Brosnan to be jailed in the killing.