Atlanta cop Garrett Rolfe who fatally shot Rayshard Brooks was fired within 24 hours
Garrett Rolfe, a seven-year veteran of the department recently trained on de-escalation tactics, was swiftly fired the day after Friday night’s shooting, officials announced just before midnight.
The colleague who had been with him, Devin Brosnan — who joined the department in 2018 — was put on administrative leave during the investigation, officials said.
The firing followed calls from Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, who had insisted the shooting was not a “justified use of deadly force.”
The officers’ boss, Atlanta Police Chief Erika Shields, also resigned over the fatal incident, citing a “deep and abiding love for this City and this department.”
Atlanta Police Union representative Ken Allen told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that rank and file was “devastated” by Rolfe’s firing and demoralized at losing Shields’ leadership.
“I certainly wouldn’t be proactive if I was an officer now,” he told AJC of Rolfe, who was 27, the same age as father-of-four Brooks.
Rolfe — who recently had nine-hours of use-of-force training — was an “exceptional officer” who followed proper procedure in his handling of Brooks’ attempted arrest, the union rep insisted.
The killing sparked a new wave of protests in Atlanta, where demonstrations following the May 25 police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis had largely simmered down.
The Wendy’s restaurant outside which Brooks was fatally shot was set ablaze Saturday night. Other demonstrators marched onto Interstate-75, stopping traffic, before police used squad cars to hold them back.
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