Pete Skandalakis, executive director of the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia, said Officer Garrett Rolfe, who shot and killed Brooks in June 2020, and Officer Devin Brosnan will not face any charges, saying they faced a “dynamic situation” that was “quickly evolving.”
"Both acted as reasonable officers would under the facts and circumstances of the events of that night," special prosecutor Peter Skandalakis said. "Both acted in accordance with well-established law and were justified in the use of force regarding the situation."
The announcement comes two years after Brooks, a 27-year-old Black man, was shot and killed outside a Wendy's restaurant after he fought two officers who tried to arrest him for DUI. During the struggle, Brooks overpowered officers Garrett Rolfe and Devin Brosnan, took a Taser from Brosnan and ran away, according to prosecutors. While fleeing, he turned back and fired the stolen Taser at Rolfe, who then shot Brooks twice, in the back and buttocks, killing him, prosecutors said.
The fatal shooting -- less than three weeks after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis -- sparked protests across Atlanta and beyond amid national demonstrations over police brutality and racial injustice. In Atlanta, the Wendy's restaurant was set ablaze, hundreds blocked a major interstate, authorities fired tear gas and the police chief stepped down.
Five days after the shooting, then-Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard announced charges against Rolfe of felony murder, aggravated assault, violations of oath of office and criminal damage to property. Brosnan was charged with aggravated assault and violating his oath.
“This isn’t one of those cases,” he said. “This is a case in which the officers were willing to give Mr. Brooks every benefit of the doubt and, you know, unfortunately, by his actions, this is what happened.”
On June 12, 2020, police responded to complaints of a man sleeping in a car in the drive-thru lane of a Wendy’s restaurant. Police body camera video shows the two officers having a calm conversation with Brooks for nearly 40 minutes.
Then, when the officers told Brooks he’d had too much to drink to be driving and tried to arrest him, Brooks resisted in a struggle caught on dash camera video. Brooks grabbed a Taser from one of the officers and fled, firing it at Rolfe as he ran. Rolfe fired his gun, and an autopsy found that Brooks was shot twice in the back.
Police Chief Erika Shields resigned less than 24 hours after Brooks died, and protesters set fire to the Wendy’s, which was later demolished.
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