This story was co-published with APM Reports, the investigative unit of American Public Media.
The Atlanta police officer who recently killed Rayshard Brooks was involved in another controversial police shooting in 2015 – a case that a local judge found so troubling, she’s still bothered by it to this day.
The officer, Garrett Rolfe, was charged on Wednesday with felony murder and assault with a deadly weapon after a video showed him shooting Brooks in the back at a Wendy’s in Atlanta on June 12. Brooks, who was black, had gotten into a scuffle with Rolfe and officer Devin Brosnan. He grabbed and fired one of the officers’ Tasers and then was shot by Rolfe as he ran away. The Brooks shooting, coming less than three weeks after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, has galvanized calls for reform and defunding of police departments around the country.
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