Officer who killed Rayshard Brooks reinstated after being fired

Atlanta was braced for potential unrest on Wednesday after the police officer charged in the shooting death of Rayshard Brooks was controversially reinstated.

The move was largely symbolic since Office Garrett Rolfe, who was fired in the wake of the incident, will remain on administrative leave.

Nonetheless, it is unclear how the decision of the Atlanta Civil Service Board will be received in the community since Rolfe still faces a murder charge in the case.

The Board said in a five-page decision that the city failed “to comply with several provisions” of the City Code and “the information received during witnesses’ testimony” when it terminated the officer.

“The Board concludes the appellant was not afforded his right to due process. Therefore, the Board grants the appeal of Garrett Rolfe and revokes his dismissal as an employee of the APD,” the decision read.

Lance J. LoRusso, a lawyer for Rolfe, said the reversal was “the first step in the total vindication of Officer Garrett Rolfe.”

According to LoRusso, who was quoted by CNN among other news outlets, his client was defending himself after he was assaulted by Brooks.

“Officer Rolfe was entitled, both as an officer and a citizen, to respond to Rayshard Brooks’ aggravated assault with deadly force,” he said in a press release. “Officer Rolfe continues to look forward to the opportunity to prove that his actions were legally justified.”

Brooks, a 27-year-old Black man, was fatally shot in June in the parking lot of Wendy’s. Rolfe and Officer Devin Brosnan were called to the restaurant after receiving a report about a man asleep behind the wheel of a car in the drive-thru lane.

Dashcam and body camera video showed that Brooks appeared cooperative as police questioned him for more than 25 minutes. After he allegedly failed a field sobriety test, he struggled with the officers as they tried to arrest him, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation has said.

During the struggle, Brooks grabbed a stun gun from one of the officers and ran away with it. Officials said he turned around and pointed it at police and was shot twice in the back.

In an outline of the shooting, the board wrote that Rolfe fired his stun gun as he chased Brooks. Brooks responded by firing the stun gun he had and was then shot twice by Rolfe, according to the outline.