Couple of experts say use of lethal force against Rayshard Brooks unnecessary

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• Two law enforcement experts believe Brook’s shooting by the police would have been avoided.
• Another police officer though thinks the response of the police against Brook’s actions was legitimate.
• An investigation by Reuters in 2017 showed that stun guns are lethal, even under the hands of someone trained.

As officials continue to probe the killing of Rayshard Brooks under the hands of police,  two former officers said the shooting was unwarranted; however, an enforcement union president called the operation as valid.

The incident resulted in Atlanta police chief’s resignation, demonstrations, and setting of Wendy’s on fire.

The former police chief of DeKalb County, Atlanta, Cedric Alexander, said the encounter last Friday night at the parking spot of a Wendy’s restaurant should not have accelerated into an unnecessary violent situation.

Alexander advised the police officers who encountered the 27-year-old Brooks, who fell asleep inside his car in Wendy’s drive-through, could have booked him an Uber just brought him home instead of attempting to put him under custody.

He added that arresting Brooks would have been excessive, and suggested that preventive enforcement of the law should be the now the primary purpose of policing.

Footage from dash and body camera shows that the two officers who responded to call, Devin Brosnan and Garrett Rolfe, were trying to arrest Brooks after failing the sobriety test.

The incident took a sudden turn when Brooks asserted he would walk home instead. As the two officers attempted to apprehend him, a struggle with the young man ensues.

Vic Reynolds, Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s director, said surveillance recordings showed Brooks trying to run away from police officers while clutching a stun gun he was able to snatch away from one of them. Brooks then seemed to look back and pointed the taser at police.

Reynolds added that the officer reached for his gun and fired at Brooks.

On Saturday, officer Rolfe was sacked from duty following Mayor Keisha Lance Bottom’s comment during a news briefing that the shooting cannot be justified.

However, Steven Gaynor, a police union president from Atlanta, did not share the same sentiment as the lady mayor. He said the shooting was necessary as a weapon like a stun gun under an inexperienced hand could be deadly.

Reynolds has previously said he was not aware of the weapon’s range that Brooks forcibly grabbed.

L. Chris Stewart, attorney for the Brooks’, stated during the weekend that stun guns are not considered a deadly weapon under Georgia law.

 A 2017 Reuters research concluded though that such weapons can be deadly regardless of who’s using it. The investigation showed that around 1,000 people had been killed since the 2000s after police fired stun guns at them. At least 153 cases reported the weapon had either directly or indirectly caused an individual’s death.

Gaynor noted that Rolfe’s response to Brook’s pointing the weapon at him was based on the teachings under the Atlanta police academy.

Source: AOL