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The Rayshard Brooks Memorial Bonfire: An Atlanta Wendy’s where Rayshard Brooks, 27, was fatally shot by police Friday night was set on fire. The restaurant caught fire Saturday after protesters broke windows at the restaurant and threw fireworks inside.Cortez Stafford, a spokesman for Atlanta fire, said the blaze grew because it wasn’t safe to get to the area near the restaurant when the fire began. He estimated there were 1,000 protesters near the Wendy’s. . . . In addition to the Wendy’s fire, protesters walked on to the highway [Interstate 75/85, known locally as the Downtown Connector] earlier in the...

ATLANTA (CBS46) Murder or felony murder. Those are the two charges Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard said could fit former Atlanta Police Officer Garrett Rolfe for the shooting death of Rayshard Brooks Friday night.

The Atlanta cop who shot and killed Rayshard Brooks could face a felony murder charge, Fulton County’s top prosecutors said Sunday. Fulton District Attorney Paul Howard said his office will decide this week if Garrett Rolfe, who was fired following Friday’s fatal shooting, will be charged in the case — and said that could mean a murder charge, he told CNN. “(Brooks) did not seem to present any kind of threat to anyone, and so the fact that it would escalate to his death just seems unreasonable,” Howard told the network. “If that shot was fired for some reason other...

On This Week today, George Stephanopoulos asked Stacey Abrams to comment on the police shooting death of Rayshard Brooks in Atlanta this past Friday night, and the "disconnect" that Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms decried regarding her expectations for the police. You might have expected Abrams to denounce the police conduct, while also condemning the lawless torching of the Wendy's restaurant where the incident occurred. But no, not a word of criticism for the wanton destruction of property. Instead, Abrams responded: "That is why you saw the reaction from protesters. That is why the virulence of anger remains. Activists are...

Body camera footage from Officer Garrett Rolfe and Officer Devin Brosan were released by the Atlanta Police Department on Saturday. The footage clearly shows Atlanta police officers behaving respectfully and doing everything they were supposed to do. According to reports Rayshard Brooks fell asleep in a Wendy’s parking lot on Friday night.When the police arrived Rayshard failed a breathalyzer test. Then when police attempted to arrest Brooks he became violent. Brooks was caught on camera wrestling with police and resisting arrest. He was shot dead after he took the officer’s taser gun and fled down the street and fired the...

Riots broke out in Atlanta on Saturday night following the death of 27-year-old Rayshard Brooks on Friday night at a Wendy’s Brooks fought with police, stole their taser gun and was shot dead when he turned to use it on the officers. On Saturday night a CNN crew was covering the riots at the Wendy’s restaurant when they were attacked. The CNN crew was jumped near the Wendy’s by violent rioters. It looks like one rioter used a skateboard to beat the CNN camera crew.

Protesters set fire Saturday to the Atlanta Wendy’s where, the night before, a black suspect was shot dead as he fired at two white cops with a stolen police Taser. Angry crowds protesting the racially charged shooting of Rayshard Brooks, a 27-year-old father of four from Atlanta, also shut down an interstate highway. Crowds of several hundred had gathered outside the fast-food restaurant all day Saturday, but began breaking windows of the establishment after sunset, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. A fire started inside at around 9:30 pm., according to the paper. As smoke billowed from the restaurant, some protest organizers...

(CNN)Protesters flooded streets of southeast Atlanta Saturday night, angry over the deadly police-involved shooting of a black man at a fast-food restaurant the night before. The protesters surrounded the Wendy's where 27-year-old Rayshard Brooks was shot and then made their way to nearby Interstate 75/85, bringing the major thoroughfare to a standstill. The Wendy's where Brooks lost his life was in flames Saturday night, and a crowd also set fire to automobiles near the fast-food restaurant. Earlier in the day, police used tear gas and a flash bang to try to clear the crowd there. The chaos came after Atlanta's...

Rayshard Brooks, a 27-year-old Black man, was shot and killed by Atlanta police officers after he was found sleeping in parked car at a Wendy's drive-thru on Friday night. According to a statement from the Georgia Bureau of Investigations, police were called to the scene shortly after 10:30 p.m. because Brooks' car was blocking other drivers. The GBI said Brooks failed a field sobriety test, after which officers attempted to arrest him. Investigators said Brooks "resisted" arrest and "a struggle ensued," during which an officer deployed a Taser. "Witnesses report that during the struggle the male subject grabbed and was...

A Black unarmed man was shot in the back and killed at a Wendy’s in Atlanta, Ga last night. @KeishaBottoms This was first degree murder. See video at link.

Chaos erupted in Atlanta on Saturday evening following the death of 27-year-old Rayshard Brooks, who was fatally shot by police following an incident in a Wendy’s parking lot on Friday. According to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, authorities on Friday responded to a complaint of a male in a vehicle “parked in the drive thru asleep, causing other customers to drive around the vehicle.” Authorities had the man perform a field sobriety test, which he failed. Thereafter, officers tried to take the man into custody, but he “resisted and a struggle ensued,” causing an officer to deploy a taser, which...

Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms announced Saturday that police Chief Erika Shields is stepping aside and the city will launch a search for her replacement. Bottoms said Shields offered her resignation, which the mayor accepted. Bottoms also called for the termination of the police officer who shot Rayshard Brooks on Friday. "I do not believe this was a justified use of deadly force and have called for the immediate termination of the officer," the mayor said, at a Saturday afternoon news conference.

Atlanta police shot and killed a black man late Friday night following a struggle outside a Wendy’s restaurant on the city’s southside, in an incident that inflamed tensions over police use of force and racial injustice that have roiled Atlanta and cities across the nation since the Memorial Day death of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis. Video of the shooting of 27-year-old Rayshard Brooks, who had allegedly fallen asleep in his car and blocked the restaurant’s drive-through, went viral across social media. Protesters marching for a third weekend in Atlanta for justice for Floyd and other...

The Georgia NAACP has called for the immediate resignation of Atlanta Police Chief Erika Shields the morning after a black man was killed in a confrontation with Atlanta Police. Rayshard Brooks was killed outside a Wendy’s Friday night after police investigated him for sleeping in a car. Brooks and police got into a scuffle in which Brooks apparently got one of the officer’s Tasers, the GBI said. GBI Director Vic Reynolds said it appears the Brooks ran from the officers, but then turned back around and pointed the Taser at them before officers shot him. "At this time, we must...

The NAACP has teamed with Tommy Oliver and Adam Platzner of Confluential Content (OWN’s Black Love, Sony’s The Perfect Guy, Sundance Award Winner Kinyarwanda) for #ITakeResponsibilty, a new campaign launched today that encourages White people to call out racism and commit to supporting Black lives. #ITakeResponsibilty kicked off today with a forward PSA featuring Julianne Moore, Kristen Bell, Sarah Paulson, Aaron Paul, Aly Raisman, Bethany Joy Lenz, Bryce Dallas Howard, Debra Messing, Ilana Glazer, Justin Theroux, Kesha, Mark Duplass, Piper Perabo and Stanley Tucci as they took responsibility for the ways they’ve perpetuated racism through silence or inaction, and their...

The president of the NAACP declined to endorse the “defund the police” movement that has gained momentum in recent days, after Minneapolis lawmakers announced they have the votes to do just that in their city — where the death of George Floyd, a black man, in police custody touched off nationwide protests. In an interview with The Associated Press this week, NAACP President Derrick Johnson said he backs “the energy behind” the movement, but did not offer explicit support for it. “I support the energy behind it,” he said. “I don’t know what that substantively means. As I’m talking to...

The riots in the wake of George Floyd’s killing have been decried by some black leaders, but you wouldn’t know it from listening to the media.L. Joy Williams, president of the Brooklyn NAACP, tweeted Saturday, “I know that our anger and frustration is real. I feel it myself and I know it exists in my community and in Black people across this country. But my gut is telling me that something nefarious is going on here.”Sherrilyn Ifill, president of the NAACP legal defense fund also tweeted: “Seeing some troubling clips. I hope that someone is putting together the clips of...

A Paterson NAACP leader said the recent city council vote-by-mail election was allegedly so flawed that the results should be thrown out and a new election ordered. “Invalidate the election. Let’s do it again,” said Rev. Kenneth Clayton said amid reports more that 20 percent of all ballots were disqualified, some in connection with voter fraud allegations. “These kinds of acts make people not want to vote anymore. They feel disenfranchised, disconnected that their votes don’t count, and that is not fair to people," he said. Rev. Clayton said the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) will...

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Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden landed in some hot water on Friday after making it very clear that he's fully taking the black vote for granted in November, should he receive his party's nomination. “If you have a problem figuring out whether you're for me or Trump, then you ain't black," Biden said during an interview on The Breakfast Club radio show Friday morning. In his subsequent apology , Biden said, "I've never, never, ever taken the African American community for granted." Oh, but he did, in the very same interview, nonetheless. The former Delaware senator made the false claim...