On Friday night, Rayshard Brooks died at the hands of police officers outside a restaurant in Atlanta, in a fatal incident that echoes the reason why hundreds of thousands of people have protested against police brutality and racial inequality in recent weeks.
The fatal encounter began at about 10.30pm, when police officers arrived to the drive-through of fast-food restaurant Wendy’s to find the 27-year-old black man had fallen asleep in his car, causing others to drive around him.
According to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, the police officers performed a sobriety test, which Brooks failed. He then reportedly resisted arrest.
A bystander caught the incident on camera. In the footage, Brooks was seen on the ground outside his car, struggling with two officers.
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Brooks then appears to grab one of their tasers, before breaking free to run away.
One officer uses their taser on him, before the other officers run out of the frame of the video.
Gun shots are heard along with someone yelling, “I got him!” The video then shows Brooks lifeless on the ground.
He was then taken to hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
The killing of Brooks comes after weeks of intense Black Lives Matter protests across the United States and worldwide following the death of George Floyd, a black man killed in Minneapolis police custody when an officer kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes.