(CNN) — Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard will announce his decision on whether to charge the Atlanta Police officers involved in the fatal shooting of Rayshard Brooks on Wednesday at 3 p.m. ET, he said in a statement.
The decision on potential charges for officer Garrett Rolfe, who fired the fatal shots, and officer Devin Brosnan, who was also on scene, comes just five days after Brooks was killed at a Wendy’s parking lot in Atlanta, Georgia.
The incident began when police responded to a report of a man sleeping in his car in the fast-food restaurant’s drive-through. After chatting calmly with the officers and failing a breathalyzer test, Brooks resisted arrest when officers moved to handcuff him for suspected drunken driving.
Video footage shows the three fighting on the ground before Brooks grabs an officer’s Taser and begins to run away. As the officers chase him, Brooks points the Taser over his shoulder at Rolfe, who then shoots him multiple times, the surveillance video shows. Brooks was struck twice in the back and died at a nearby hospital.
The police killing came amid nationwide protests calling for an end to racism and police violence against black people. Already, Rolfe has been fired, Brosnan was placed on administrative duty and Atlanta Police Chief Erika Shields stepped down from her position.
Brooks’ family members, who are preparing for the 27-year-old father’s funeral, say the two officers should have continued to pursue him as he ran away instead of shooting him.
But some law enforcement leaders say the shooting was justified and protected by Georgia law — which allows a person to use deadly force “only if he or she reasonably believes that such force is necessary to prevent death or great bodily injury to himself or herself or a third person.”
Howard has said he didn’t understand why the encounter turned fatal, as Brooks was initially compliant. Atlanta’s mayor called Brooks’s killing a “murder.” And CNN law enforcement analyst Charles Ramsey says the officers knew Brooks didn’t have a weapon and could have continued to chase him and ask for backup.
“You’ve got the car. You’ve asked for his driver’s license. You know who he is. So even if you don’t get him right now, you can get him later,” Ramsey said.
Law enforcement leaders justify shooting
Steven Gaynor, the president of the Cobb County Fraternal Order of Police, justified the shooting by saying Brooks posed a threat and had assaulted the officers as he was getting arrested.
“(Georgia law specifically gives (the officer) the right based on the aggravated assaults and the threat (Brooks) poses to the public and to the officers there,” Gaynor said. “It specifically gives them by law the right to shoot him. (Brooks) chose to make those actions. He chose to to do what he did.”
“He could have been like 100 other DUIs that night, gotten arrested, bonded out and gone home to his family,” he added.
Instead, Brooks was shot twice in the back and died at a hospital shortly after, authorities said. His death was ruled a homicide.
More than 150 miles away from Atlanta, Burke County Sheriff Alfonzo Williams also called the officers’ actions “completely justified.”
“There’s nothing malicious or sadistic in the way these officers behaved,” he said. “It’s very unfortunate that the law enforcement leaders in the state of Georgia have not come out and stood together on this case. I think it’s political and it’s senseless.”
A point of contention in the debate revolving around Brooks’ last moments was the Taser he picked up from one of the officers.
“The training we have had for over 20 years tells us if they take your baton or your Taser, it now becomes one step more that you have to use deadly force,” Gaynor said. “Because those can be used against you to incapacitate you and then take your weapon.”
But even if Brooks had fired the Taser at the officer, it’s very unlikely he would have been able to deploy it a second time, according to Ramsey, CNN’s analyst.
“Once you fire the Taser, it has to recycle before it can be used again,” said Ramsey, a former Philadelphia police commissioner. “I would doubt very seriously if most citizens would even know how to operate a Taser.”
Officer had prior complaints
Rolfe, the officer who shot and killed Brooks, had several citizen complaints on his disciplinary record, all with notes that no action was taken, according to records released by the Atlanta Police Department.
He was also the subject of a 2016 use-of-force complaint that resulted in a written reprimand in 2017, the records show.
Rolfe was hired in 2013. Brosnan was hired in 2018.
CNN has reached out to the department for more information on the records and has also reached out to the Atlanta Police Foundation. Rolfe and Brosnan have not responded to repeated requests for comment.
Brooks’ family is now preparing to bury the father of four.
He leaves behind three daughters, who are 1, 2 and 8 years old, and a 13-year-old stepson.
“They’re planning a funeral. So anyone who has gone through that with a loved one they understand how tough that is,” family attorney L. Chris Stewart said.
“When you actually have to go pick out the suit that your father or husband or brother is going to wear in a casket.”
Brooks’ wife has previously said she wants both officers involved in the killing to go to jail.
“I want them to deal with the same thing as if it was my husband who killed someone else. If it was my husband who shot them, he would be in jail. He would be doing a life sentence. They need to be put away,” Miller previously told “CBS This Morning.”
(Copyright (c) 2025 CNN. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)