Georgia attorney general refuses request to appoint new prosecutor in Rayshard Brooks shooting

Georgia’s attorney general has refused a request to appoint an alternative prosecutor in two high-profile cases involving the use of force by police in Atlanta.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis had cited issues with her predecessor’s handling of the two cases.

One is that of Rayshard Brooks, a Black man killed by a police officer outside a fast-food restaurant in June. Another involves two Black college students pulled from their cars by officers during a George Floyd protest.

In a letter to state Attorney General Christopher Carr, Willis said former Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard used video evidence as part of his television ad campaign for re-election. The campaign used footage from the Brooks case during the race that was won by Willis.

She also pointed to Howard’s issuance of grand jury subpoenas, while no such panel was sitting due to the ongoing pandemic, as a reason why the case should be transferred out of her office. The Georgia Bureau of Investigations is looking into the grand jury issue.

One of the cases is against six Atlanta Police Department officers, who broke a car window and pulled Taniyah Pilgrim and Messiah Young from their vehicle during the Floyd protest last year.

The students were on their way home on May 30 from picking up food when they got caught in downtown Atlanta traffic near a large group of demonstrators who had taken to the city’s streets in protest over Floyd’s death during his arrest in Minneapolis.

The other involves Brooks’ death. He was killed by an Atlanta officer outside a Wendy’s restaurant after police responded to a report of a man sleeping in his car in the fast-food restaurant’s drive-thru lane.

After chatting calmly with the officers and failing a Breathalyzer test, Brooks resisted when officers moved to handcuff him.

Video footage shows the three fighting on the ground before Brooks grabs an officer’s Taser and begins to run away. As an officer chases him, Brooks points the Taser over his shoulder at former Atlanta police officer Garrett Rolfe, who then shoots him multiple times, the surveillance video shows. Brooks died at a hospital.

In a letter rejecting the request for a change of prosecutor Tuesday, Carr said that, based on the concerns raised in Willis’ letter, “it appears abundantly clear that your office is not disqualified from these cases by interest or relationship.”

The attorney general’s office would “not be proceeding to appoint a prosecutor for these cases,” the responsibility for which “remains with your office,” the letter said.

A third unrelated case will be reassigned to a special prosecutor, the letter from the attorney general’s office said.