[Cabrera:] Our thanks to Tom Foreman for that. And that does it for me today. Thank you for being with me. I'm Ana Cabrera. A special edition of "THE SITUATION ROOM" with Wolf Blitzer starts right now.
[Announcer:] This is CNN Breaking News.
[Wolf Blitzer, Cnn:] Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington. This is a special of THE SITUATION ROOM. We're now in the 20th straight day of protests in cities throughout the United States. George Floyd's death was the initial spark but as the movement enters its fourth week, it's now also fueled by the death of 27-year-old Rayshard Brooks. Police shot and killed him Friday night in an Atlanta drive-through, seen here live in our aerial shot. As protesters gathered at the Wendy's restaurant where it happened, the fallout was swift. Not even 24 hours after the fatal shooting, the Atlanta police chief stepped down. Overnight, we learned the officer who shot Brooks, Garrett Rolfe, was fired. And earlier here on CNN, the district attorney says he's weighing murder charges for that officer.
[Paul Howard , Fulton County, Georgia District Attorney:] I can tell you definitely that probably sometime around Wednesday, we will be making a decision in this case. I believe in this instance what we have to choose between, if there is a choice to be made, is between murder and felony murder.
[Blitzer:] Today, as part of the homicide investigation, an autopsy of Rayshard Brooks was conducted and Atlanta Police released body cam footage of the incident. CNN's Boris Sanchez walks us through what those videos show. We want to warn our viewers some of the footage you're about to see is disturbing.
[Boris Sanchez, Cnn Correspondent:] Responding to a call from a Wendy's in south Atlanta Friday night, Officer David Brosnan approaches Rayshard Brooks' car.
[Unidentified Male:] What's up, my man? Hey, what's going on, man? Hey. Hey, man, you're parked in the middle of a drive-thru line here. Hey, sir. What's up, man? Hey, you're parked in a drive-thru right now. Hey, sir, you all right?
[Sanchez:] Asleep in the drive-thru lane, police body cam footage shows the 27-year-old does not respond right away.
[Unidentified Male:] Are you just tired? All right, man. I'll move my car. Just pull up somewhere and take a nap. All right. All right, are you good?
[Rayshard Brooks, Suspect:] Yes.
[Unidentified Male:] All right.
[Sanchez:] Brooks eventually wakes up and agrees to move his car before he appears to fall asleep again.
[Unidentified Male:] My man, it doesn't mean go back to sleep. You've got to move your car. You're going back to sleep.
[Sanchez:] Brooks moves to a nearby parking spot where Brosnan asks
[Unidentified Male:] How much did you drink tonight? Not much? How much is not much? You say one drink, what kind of drink was it?
[Brooks:] Maybe that's one little margarita.
[Unidentified Male:] How about are you on any drugs today?
[Brooks:] I don't do drugs.
[Sanchez:] Brooks struggles to find his license and tries to step out of the car.
[Brooks:] I'm going to get out.
[Unidentified Male:] No, just stay in the car for a minute. All right. Just stay in the car, man. Just look for your license.
[Sanchez:] Brosnan then radios for another officer to conduct a DUI test.
[Unidentified Male:] He's pretty out of it. Definitely got some good amount on him right now.
[Sanchez:] When officer Garrett Rolfe arrives, Brooks denies ever having been asleep.
[Unidentified Male:] The reason why we're here is because somebody called 911 because you were asleep behind the wheel while you're in the drive-thru, right? Do you recall that?
[Brooks:] I don't. I don't.
[Unidentified Male:] You don't recall that? You don't recall just minutes ago where you were passed out behind the wheel in the drive- thru?
[Brooks:] Uh-uh.
[Sanchez:] He agrees to a breathalyzer test, says he can't remember how much he had to drink and then he tells police
[Brooks:] I know, I know. You just doing your job.
[Sanchez:] When Rolfe tries to handcuff Brooks, he resists. Witness video shows Brosnan readying his taser.
[Unidentified Male:] You're going to get tased.
[Sanchez:] Brooks grabs it out of his hand.
[Unidentified Male:] Hands off the Stop.
[Sanchez:] Breaking free, Brooks punches Rolfe who fires his stun gun as Brooks takes off. And here's the moment the altercation becomes deadly. We slow this down for you. You can see Rolfe chasing Brooks, each man now carrying a taser. Watch as Rolfe moves his taser from his right hand to his left and reaches towards his handgun. That's when Brooks turns and fires the taser. And Rolfe shoots, firing three times at Brooks as he flees.
[Unidentified Male:] Stop. Stop.
[Sanchez:] Bystanders almost immediately begin cursing and shouting at the officers.
[Unidentified Male:] Both of your careers are definitely done because you just shot a man for no reason.
[Sanchez:] A few minutes after he's shot, Officers Rolfe and Brosnan begin to provide medical treatment.
[Unidentified Male:] Mr. Brooks, keep breathing.
[Sanchez:] A short time later Brooks is rushed by ambulance to a nearby hospital where he's later pronounced dead.
[Blitzer:] Our special thanks to Boris Sanchez for that report. Joining us now, L. Chris Stewart, he's the attorney for the family of Rayshard Brooks. Chris, thank you once again for joining us. First of all, give us any update you can on where the investigation stands, where the case stands right now.
[L. Chris Stewart, Attorney For Family Of Rayshard Brooks:] We're waiting on the decision from the district attorney, Paul Howard. We saw the statement that he put out, the options that he's weighing and we're continuing to keep trying to find witnesses and video of the incident.
[Blitzer:] Well, based on the video we've all seen, Chris, right now, what's your analysis of what we've seen?
[Stewart:] It showed you what kind of person Mr. Brooks was in the beginning of this incident. It's literally what you tell people how to act when an officer approaches you. Even though he had had something to drink, he was polite. He was using sir. He was conducted a 20 to 30-minute sobriety test. Did the leg stand, did everything possible. And it should have ended when he said, simply, can I walk to my sister's house? I'll lock my car. It should have ended right there. That's what citizen policing is about. You let him just walk home. He's not driving. He's not going to harm anybody. He's coherent. Let him walk home.
[Blitzer:] But he had been driving he drove to the he drove to the Wendy's, right?
[Stewart:] Yes, he did drive to the Wendy's.
[Blitzer:] Because I assume the police were suspicious about if he was driving under the you know, while drunk. But you make an important point, though, he did say, I'll leave my car at the Wendy's and I'll walk to my sister's house, but that clearly wasn't good enough for the police.
[Stewart:] It wasn't good enough for Officer Rolfe. The first officer appeared to be contemplating, he said pull over there and apparently take a nap or sleep it off. The first officer actually was being polite, was trying to be understanding, and it escalated once Rolfe got there who didn't want to allow any type of compassion or empathy or understanding or even let this man just walk home.
[Blitzer:] Because when he started to handcuff him and put his hands behind his back, that's when Rayshard Brooks started to resist, right?
[Stewart:] Yes.
[Blitzer:] Should he have resisted at that point or should he just complied?
[Stewart:] Well, I mean, I can't get into the mind of what he was thinking at that point. I'm sure that, you know, having had a few drinks, maybe he didn't believe that he should be arrested at that point. But, you know, it's beyond the point. You know, what happened in that moment when he resisted doesn't allow a police officer to become judge, jury and executioner. We watch videos all the time where it is a Caucasian individual or a person of a different race that resists and lives. We've watched videos of a person go do a mass shooting and live. There was absolutely no reason for him to die because he resisted and ran away.
[Blitzer:] The Fulton County district attorney, as you know, Paul Howard, says a decision on charges against this police officer who shot Brooks will be made, and I'm quoting him now, sometime around Wednesday, and that three charges were relevant under consideration, murder, felony murder, or voluntary manslaughter. What's your reaction to that?
[Stewart:] Just totally up to the district attorney's office. I try to stay out of the criminal charges or the work being done by the district attorney and just handle what we can do on our side. You know, we don't want to have any role in tainting the view of what happens with the criminal charges.
[Blitzer:] You have confidence in this district attorney?
[Stewart:] I have confidence in any district attorney that sees a videotape like this where an officer's life was not in the immediate threat of losing his life or immediate harm. It was a taser which falls under the exact category of pepper spray and a baton. So if he had been running with pepper spray and sprayed it backwards or waved the baton at the cop, should he have been shot then?
[Blitzer:] Basically what you're saying is when he started to run away, the police officer should have just let him run away and they could find a way to catch him later, they obviously had a name they had his car, they would have found him, he shouldn't have taken out his gun and basically shot him in the back?
[Stewart:] Yes. What it is with a lot of policing and they're trained to do an examination of the totality of the situation. They saw that this individual was not aggressive in the beginning. They did a full pat down so they knew he wasn't armed, they knew he didn't have a gun. They had his license, they had his vehicle, they had his keys. He wasn't going anywhere. And if he did, they could find him. He ran away with the taser which falls into the category of OC spray and a baton. He wasn't posing an immediate risk to anyone, but yet the officer opened fire in a packed parking lot.
[Blitzer:] You want the DA to charge him with what? With murder?
[Stewart:] We want the DA to charge him with any of the different degrees that he's looking at right now. like I said, I'm not going to comment on Paul Howard's investigation.
[Blitzer:] Because that police officer, as you know, he's been fired. The other police officer who was there, he's been reassigned, basically, to clerical duty. Should the second police officer who didn't fire the shots, should he be charged as well?
[Stewart:] We're still looking into his behavior once the chase started. I will say that his behavior when the entire incident began is what policing is supposed to be, as polite as he was, as understanding, even looking like he was going to let him park on the side and sleep it off. You know, that's the whole thing that I'm trying to get this entire country to get back to is community before search and destroy. It is there will be situations where you have to give people a break, where you let someone sleep it off, where you let someone lay down or walk home instead of putting cuffs on them. But we're just too militarized in our policing in the community.
[Blitzer:] Tell us how the family of Rayshard Brooks is doing right now. I know you represent that family, the kids, everybody else. How are they doing?
[Stewart:] We can't really describe it. I mean, think about an 8-year- old who now on top of her birthday is also going to remember that this is the day her dad was murdered on video for the rest of her life. So I'll just leave it at that.
[Blitzer:] Yes, it's a sad and yesterday was her birthday, right?
[Stewart:] Yes. And, you know, they're just trying to make it through.
[Blitzer:] Yes. Well, give the family our love, obviously. And we'll stay in very, very close touch with you. Thank you so much for joining us. This is a heartbreaking situation in Atlanta. We've certainly seen the fallout unfold. Chris Stewart is the attorney for the family of Rayshard Brooks. Thanks so much for joining us.
[Stewart:] All right. Thanks, Wolf.
[Blitzer:] We'll continue this conversation down the road for sure. We're also continuing to monitor nationwide protests now for the 20th straight day as demonstrators around the United States are calling for an end to racial injustice. We'll speak with the former president of the NAACP. Stay with us, you're in THE SITUATION ROOM.