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How Rayshard Brooks Was Fatally Shot by the Atlanta Police
One officer has been fired and another placed on administrative duty. A Times video analysis shows the sequence of events leading to the fatal shooting.
Malachy Browne, Christina Kelso and
[Here’s what you need to know about the death of Rayshard Brooks.]
The Atlanta Police Department said early Sunday that an officer had been fired over the fatal shooting of Rayshard Brooks, 27, at a Wendy’s restaurant. The officer, Garrett Rolfe, who had worked with the department since 2013, fired his handgun three times while he was chasing Mr. Brooks, who the authorities said had seized a Taser from an officer and fired it as he ran. Another officer on the scene, Devin Brosnan, who has been with the department for less than two years, was placed on administrative duty.
The Times analyzed eyewitness videos, police bodycam footage and security camera footage of the events to determine what happened in the minutes preceding Mr. Brooks’s death. We synchronized the footage to hear what happened and determine precisely when Officer Rolfe fired his gun, and we reviewed other details of the shooting released by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
The chronology below uses the time stamp displayed on police body camera and dash camera footage.
Here’s a detailed breakdown of what happened:
At 10:33 p.m. on Friday, police officers were called to a Wendy’s restaurant at 125 University Avenue in South Atlanta. Mr. Brooks had fallen asleep in his vehicle, which was parked in the drive-through, causing other customers to drive around him, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said in a statement.
10:42 p.m. Officer Brosnan arrives and wakes Mr. Brooks.
Officer Brosnan says: “All right, you good? Just pull in somewhere and take a n … All right, you good?” Mr. Brooks parks in a nearby car space.
Officer Brosnan appears to be unsure whether he should let Mr. Brooks sleep in the car or should take further action. At 10:49 p.m., he contacts police dispatch and requests another police officer.
10:56 p.m. Officer Rolfe arrives and consults with Officer Brosnan. Officer Rolfe questions Mr. Brooks, who says he didn’t drive to Wendy’s but was dropped off. Officer Rolfe rejects the statement.
11:03 p.m. Officer Rolfe checks whether Mr. Brooks is armed. He is not.
11:04 p.m. Officer Rolfe performs a sobriety test on Mr. Brooks over the next seven minutes. Mr. Brooks is compliant and friendly with the officers throughout this time. He says he is not too drunk to drive.
Officer Rolfe asks Mr. Brooks to take a breath test for alcohol. Mr. Brooks admits he has been drinking and says, “I don’t want to refuse anything.”
Mr. Brooks asks the officers if he can lock his car up under their supervision and walk to his sister’s house, which he says is a short distance away. “I can just go home,” he says.
11:23 p.m. The two officers have been at the scene for 27 minutes. When the breath test is complete, Officer Rolfe tells Mr. Brooks he “has had too much drink to be driving,” and begins to handcuff him. Less than a minute later, Mr. Brooks is shot.
Police footage and video filmed by a witness, Tiachelle Brown, shows Mr. Brooks grappling with the officers on the ground. Officer Rolfe says, “Stop that. Stop fighting, stop fighting,” and Officer Brosnan shouts, “You’re going to get Tased.”
Mr. Brooks says “Mr. Rolfe, come on man. Mr. Rolfe.” He seizes a Taser from Officer Brosnan, stands up and punches Officer Rolfe. Officer Rolfe fires his Taser gun. The darts hit Mr. Brooks, and Officer Rolfe continues trying to stun him.
Mr. Brooks runs away, holding Officer Brosnan’s Taser gun. Officer Rolfe gives chase, and continues to try to stun Mr. Brooks.
The security camera footage filmed at Wendy’s shows Officer Rolfe chasing Mr. Brooks. In seconds, Officer Rolfe passes his Taser from his right hand to his left hand, and reaches for his handgun.
While being chased, and in full stride, Mr. Brooks looks behind him, points the Taser he is holding in Officer Rolfe’s direction, and fires it. The flash of the Taser suggests that Mr. Brooks did not fire it with any real accuracy.
Officer Rolfe discards the Taser he is carrying, draws his handgun and fires it three times at Mr. Brooks as he is running away. Mr. Brooks falls to the ground. Warning: This footage is disturbing. The time stamp lags the police bodycam time stamp by one minute.
11:23 p.m. For the next minute, Officer Rolfe and Officer Brosnan stand over Mr. Brooks, who is injured but moving on the ground, and occasionally reach down to him. Officer Brosnan appears to use his radio. Neither officer appears to provide medical assistance to Mr. Brooks. Another police car arrives at the scene.
11:24 p.m. Another video shows Officer Rolfe running back to his S.U.V. and calling for help over his radio. Bystanders denounce the shooting to a third police officer who is at the scene.
11:25 p.m. Officer Rolfe and Officer Brosnan begin to provide medical assistance. Officer Rolfe appears to unroll a bandage and place it on Mr. Brooks’s torso.
11:30 p.m. An ambulance arrives. Eight minutes later, Mr. Brooks is taken to a hospital, where he dies after surgery.
transcript
The Killing of Rayshard Brooks: How a 41-Minute Police Encounter Suddenly Turned Fatal
The Times analyzed witness videos, police footage and official documents to identify the critical moments — and missteps — that led to the killing of Rayshard Brooks in Atlanta on June 12, 2020.
On Friday night, June 12, an employee at a Wendy’s restaurant in South Atlanta calls 911. A 27-year-old man named Rayshard Brooks had fallen asleep in his car in the drive-through lane. Soon, two police officers respond. They and Mr. Brooks speak calmly and cordially for 41 minutes. “That was it.” But then in just 45 seconds, one of the officers fatally shoots Mr. Brooks as he is running away. [gunshots] How could a routine police response go so suddenly and horribly wrong? The Times examined witness videos, security footage, police body-cam and dash-cam videos. We synchronized and slowed down those videos so we can see and hear what unfolded. We reviewed police records, and procedures, and statements made by the officers involved. And we identified the critical moments and missteps that led to a young man losing his life. It’s 10:41 p.m., eight minutes after the 911 call when Officer Devin Brosnan arrives at Wendy’s. He raps on Brooks’s car window and wakes him up. Brooks appears groggy and disoriented. [beeping] Brosnan, who joined the Atlanta Police Department last year, talks to Brooks and then requests an officer who can perform sobriety tests. At 10:55 p.m., Officer Garrett Rolfe arrives. [beeping] Rolfe joined the Atlanta Police Force in 2013, and is an experienced D.U.I. investigator. Rolfe has once been reprimanded for firing his service weapon, police records show. He takes charge of the investigation. Rolfe begins to question Brooks, who is confused about where he is. He seems to think he’s six miles down the road near a Home Lodge Hotel. There’s another Wendy’s right beside it. At 11:02 p.m., Rolfe asks Brooks to get out of the car. Moments later, Brooks will also consent to a series of sobriety tests. Brooks is clearly inebriated. But he’s compliant and friendly throughout this time. The officers are courteous. And Rolfe gives him clear and precise instructions. When Rolfe now asks Brooks if he’ll take a breathalyzer test, Brooks hesitates at first. Brooks offers to go to his sister’s house. Why did Brooks want to resolve his situation without being arrested? According to court records, he was on probation for domestic violence and theft offenses. He was probably aware that a new arrest or conviction would almost certainly send him back to prison. The breathalyzer returns a blood alcohol reading of .108 percent, above the legal limit of .08 percent. Rolfe has little option now but to charge Brooks with D.U.I. Some policing experts told us he could have written a citation and drove Brooks home. Others said police are expected to show zero tolerance with drunken driving. For 41 minutes, Brooks and the officers have spoken calmly and respectfully. They even shared a few laughs. Now, Rolfe moves to arrest Brooks. And in 45 seconds, he will fatally shoot him. [gunshots] [yelling] Let’s watch this back, and break down what happens. Rolfe has signaled or sought Brooks’s consent for every action to this point. But he moves to handcuff Brooks swiftly and without clearly telling him he’s under arrest. This breaches D.U.I. arrest procedures. Brooks resists, and the three tumble to the ground. Brosnan draws his Taser … … and pushes it into Brooks’s leg. Brooks grabs the Taser. Both officers’ body cameras fall to the ground. Brooks stands up and strikes Rolfe with an open hand. As Rolfe draws his Taser, Brooks fires a dart, hitting Brosnan’s arm. Rolfe fires the Taser twice … [yelling] … and hits Brooks’s body. We hear Rolfe using his Taser as he chases Brooks. This is a breach of police procedures. Rolfe passes the Taser to his left hand and reaches for his gun. Brooks looks behind and fires the Taser he’s holding. We confirmed these Taser models with the Atlanta Police. Once they’re fired twice, they must be reloaded. So at this point, Brooks is unarmed. Rolfe drops his Taser, draws his handgun and fires three times at Brooks, who is 18 feet away and is trying to escape in a busy Wendy’s parking lot. [gunshots] Two bullets hit Brooks in the back, one piercing his heart. A third bullet hits this Chevrolet Trailblazer, which had three passengers in it. This photo from the Fulton County District Attorney shows the bullet hole. No one in the car was injured. Rolfe shouts at Brooks … ... and appears to kick him on the ground. This image, also provided by the Fulton County D.A., shows that moment more clearly. Officer Brosnan approaches and briefly stands on Brooks’s shoulder. [yelling] Meanwhile, witnesses denounce the shooting. The officers stand over Brooks for about a minute before Rolfe runs back to his vehicle to get his medical kit. Brosnan continues to stand by. It’s over two minutes before Brooks receives medical assistance. “Every fucking time!” Rolfe administers CPR until emergency services take over. At 11:39 p.m., 15 minutes after he’s shot, an ambulance takes Rayshard Brooks to a hospital where he is later announced dead. Was Rolfe justified in shooting a man holding a Taser, and who was trying to escape? Police procedures on the use of deadly force state that an officer must reasonably believe the suspect possesses a deadly weapon, and that the suspect poses an immediate threat of serious bodily injury to the officer or others. In a statement made through his lawyer, Officer Rolfe said he did use reasonable force because he “heard a sound like a gunshot” and fearing for his safety and the safety of others, he “fired” his weapon. The description of a gunshot doesn’t square with what Rolfe told investigating police at the scene. And minutes before this, Rolfe appears to have been aware that Brooks fired the Taser twice. This and other evidence will be scrutinized in what has now become a homicide investigation. Rolfe has been charged on 11 counts, including felony murder, and both officers with aggravated assault.
Muyi Xiao and Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs contributed research.
Malachy Browne is a senior story producer on the Visual Investigations team at The New York Times. He was part of a team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2020 for international reporting for coverage of Russian culpability in crimes around the world, including the bombing of hospitals in Syria. More about Malachy Browne
Barbara Marcolini is a video producer on the Visual Investigations team, a new form of investigative, explanatory journalism that combines traditional reporting with advanced digital forensics. More about Barbara Marcolini
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