Racial Injustice Protest in the United States Now on its 20th Day and the Death of Rayshard Brooks and Autopsy Results Ignites Fresh Protests; Picture of a White Activist Rescued by Black Lives Matter Demonstrator in London Goes Viral
MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN HOST: Hello, and welcome to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. I'm Michael Holmes and this is "CNN Newsroom." We have now witnessed 20 straight nights of protests against racial injustice in the United States. The killing of Rayshard Brooks at a fast food restaurant here in Atlanta has reignited the explosion of anger that began over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. These are just some of the major rallies against police brutality we've been seeing across the country. Meanwhile, a newly-released autopsy shows Brooks was shot twice in the back. According to the Fulton County district attorney, the first thing the officer said after shooting Brooks was, "I got him." He has since been fired. The district attorney says he is now weighing murder charges.</s>PAUL HOWARD, FULTON COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY: 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. I can tell you definitely that probably sometime around Wednesday we will be making a decision in this case.</s>HOLMES: The deadly encounter between Rayshard Brooks and the Atlanta officers captured on body cam and we are getting a clear picture now of the moments leading up to the shooting. CNN's Boris Sanchez brings us this report from the scene.</s>BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Large crowds of people have come and gone from this Wendy's in south Atlanta where Rayshard Brooks was shot and killed on Friday night. Many of them, protesting, some of them setting up a makeshift memorial. What is captured on camera of the incident Friday night, paints accomplice picture. Brooks, at different, points joking with police officers, engaging in polite conversation, but in one fell swoop, everything changes. We should warn, you some of this video is graphic, and difficult to watch.</s>SANCHEZ (voice-over): Responding to a call from a Wendy's in south Atlanta Friday night, Officer David Brosnan approaches Rayshard Brooks' car.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's up, my man? Hey, what's going on, man? 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 the drive-thru right now. Hey, sir, you all right?</s>SANCHEZ (voice-over): Asleep in the drive-thru lane, police body cam footage shows the 27-year-old does not respond right away.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, are you tired? All right, man. I'll move my car. Just pull up somewhere and take a nap. All right. All right, are you good?</s>RAYSHARD BROOKS, SUSPECT: Yes.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right.</s>SANCHEZ (voice-over): Brooks eventually wakes up and agrees to move his car before he appears to fall asleep again.</s>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.</s>SANCHEZ (voice-over): Brooks moves to a nearby parking spot where Brosnan asks --</s>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?</s>BROOKS: It was (inaudible) margarita.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you on any drugs today?</s>BROOKS: I don't do drugs.</s>SANCHEZ (voice-over): Brooks struggles to find his license and tries to step out of the car.</s>BROOKS: I'm going to get out.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, just stay in the car for a minute. Just look for your license.</s>SANCHEZ (voice-over): Brosnan then radios for another officer to conduct a DUI test.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's pretty out of it. Definitely got some good amount of liquor on him right now.</s>SANCHEZ (voice-over): When Officer Garrett Rolfe arrives, Brooks denies ever having been asleep.</s>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?</s>BROOKS: I don't. I don't.</s>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?</s>SANCHEZ (voice-over): He agrees to a breathalyzer test, says he can't remember how much he had to drink and then he tells police --</s>BROOKS: I know, I know. You just (inaudible).</s>SANCHEZ (voice-over): When Rolfe tries to handcuff Brooks, he resists. Witness video shows Brosnan readying his taser.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're going to get tased.</s>SANCHEZ (voice-over): Brooks grabs it out of his hand.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hands off the</s>SANCHEZ (voice-over): 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.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stop. Stop.</s>SANCHEZ (voice-over): Bystanders almost immediately begin cursing and shouting at the officers.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Both of your careers are definitely done because you just shot a man for no reason.</s>SANCHEZ (voice-over): A few minutes after he's shot, Officers Rolfe and Brosnan begin to provide medical treatment.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Brooks, keep breathing.</s>SANCHEZ (voice-over): A short time later Brooks is rushed by ambulance to a nearby hospital where he's later pronounced dead.</s>SANCHEZ (on camera): Officer Rolfe who opened fire has been terminated, Officer Brosnan who first responded to the scene here has been placed on administrative duty and Erika Shields, the chief of police in Atlanta, resigned over the weekend. Of course, there is an ongoing investigation, potentially with charges coming this week. Boris Sanchez, CNN in Atlanta.</s>HOLMES: And our next guest is a former president of the Police Foundation, former police chief Jim Bueermann joins me from Redlands in California. Thanks for doing so sir. I mean, when you look at the videos, I'm curious on your take. It does seem to show that there were choices made. What's your evaluation of the officer's decision to draw his weapon and fire at the moment that the suspect's back is turned and he is fleeing?</s>JIM BUEERMANN, FORMER PRESIDENT POLICE FOUNDATION: So I think this video shows how quickly what is starting out as a very casual and a very cordial interaction between Mr. Brooks and the officers can go right off the rails. So the officers are talking to him. Eventually, they decide that they're going to place him under arrest. And one of the things I thought was a little surprising as they did not tell him, at least in a video I've seen, they did not tell him that he was under arrest. They simply grabbed him; tell him to put his hands behind his back. And it sounds like he had been drinking, that may have startled him, and the fight is on and he took off. The decision for the officers to use their weapons really is going to be one that's framed around whether it was necessary and reasonable and whether the force that they used was proportional. And I think, you know, decide that that probably wasn't true.</s>HOLMES: Yes. I mean, one imagines you've got to be fearing for your own life, and it did not appear that his life was under threat, the police officers. I mean, it's just that a tragedy that, you know, George Floyd died after passing a counterfeit $20 bill and Mr. Brooks died after falling asleep in his car at a Wendy's. I mean, do you feel charges are appropriate given what you've seen? And if so, what sort of charge?</s>BUEERMANN: So, I haven't seen enough of this, but apparently the autopsy has indicated that he was shot in the back. And so, again, whether this was necessary, whether it was reasonable, and whether it was proportional, if Mr. Brooks is running away from the officers and he is not presenting an immediate threat to their life, then I think the officer - it's going to be incumbent upon the officers and their defensive criminal charges are filed, is to determine whether or not or to prove that they thought that they had a reasonable fear for their life. And, you know, I think when you look at that, you have to ask yourself a couple of questions. Obviously, some of the things that Mr. Brooks did were not right, He stole the gun from the officers and that's probably a felony, but they knew who he was. They knew where to find him. And if they have to, they can let him go, and then get him later on. And so I think all of these factors are going to come into play. The officers are going to have their side of the story and they're going to tender a defense if criminal charges are filed.</s>HOLMES: Yes, I guess, again, you're going to come back to that. Was the officer's life at threat? And it's pretty hard to argue that when the suspect is running away. It does all speak to, and this is sort of all being part of the discussion about reform. I mean, what short of reform would help in that situation? What sort of training, de- escalation and treatment of a suspect?</s>BUEERMANN: So, I think if you go back to the very beginning of this incident, it looks to me like they're probably arresting him for drunk driving. So, one of the questions might be, first of all, you got to tell him and that's part of de-escalation. You have to tell people what it is I'm about to do. When you put your hands on somebody and you don't tell him why you're doing that, especially if they've been drinking, they are going to panic sometimes. So, that's part of the problem. The other problem is, and I think in this discussion about how we resolve lower grade criminal offenses, there are going to be some people who say, well, why couldn't they have just given him a ride home? He was not causing them any problems. He was cooperating. He was very polite to them. And I think even suggested that they gave him a ride home or he could just go a few blocks and he'd be home. Of course, there are going to be other people, especially those who have loved ones who've been victims of drunk drivers, who are going to take a very different stance on that kind of thing.</s>HOLMES: Just very quickly, I mean, there is lots of talk about defunding at the moment and, of course, the notion of abolishing departments is not really the argument about defunding, it's about diverting some budget to social services that can deal with some issues police currently handle, from homeless people to mental health. I mean, what do you think of that? I mean, are there situations, maybe this wasn't the one, where police probably don't even want to be handling it?</s>BUEERMANN: So I'm not sure this was one of those situations, but I will tell, you every cop I know and this wouldn't have been my opinion when I was still a police officer, that cops don't volunteer for this stuff. I mean, society has decided that police are going to be the first responders in those situations. I think police chiefs and police officers all across the country are going to be very supportive of this idea of shifting that responsibility to other first responders that have better training, are better able to handle that kind of situation. They don't want to do this. It is who we have decided as a society are going to be the first responders and now is the time for us to change that.</s>HOLMES: Yes. I think you hit the nail on the head. If only they've said head off home. His sister lived a couple blocks away apparently. Jim Bueermann, really appreciate it. Thank you so much.</s>BUEERMANN: You're welcome.</s>HOLMES: The powerful picture of a black protester carrying a white man to safety is going viral on social media at the moment. This all happened during clashes on Saturday between Black Lives Matter demonstrators and far-right groups in London. Patrick Hutchinson says he picked the man up after noticing he was injured and carried him to police nearby to keep him safe. For more on this pretty unforgettable image, I'm joined by CNN Salma Abdelaziz at London's Waterloo station where these clashes broke out on Saturday. Really is an amazing image. Tell us more about the man and his motives.</s>SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN PRODUCER: That's exactly right, Michael. And those steps just behind me there is actually where this whole scene unfolded. There were right-wing demonstrators clashing with supporters of the Black Lives Matter Movement. Now, the Black Lives Matter Movement had actually canceled demonstrations for the weekend, but Patrick Hutchinson says he knew that there would be young supporters of the movement that would come out that they could potentially get into trouble, and that he wanted to act as a peacekeeper. Take a look at our interview.</s>ABDELAZIZ: Is this you in the photograph?</s>PATRICK HUTCHINSON, PROTESTER: Yes, that is me in that photograph.</s>ABDELAZIZ: Can you describe to me what's happening in this picture?</s>HUTCHINSON: My friends and I sort of put a cordon around this man. He was on the stairs, lying in the fetal position with, you know, anything was about to happen to him. The first time I saw him was when I sort of climbed underneath him to go and pick him up.</s>ABDELAZIZ: And you could have looked at this man and thought he is my enemy. Why did you choose to help him?</s>HUTCHINSON: There was a particular thought that I had that, you know, you have to show some sort of, you know, love for your fellow man, okay, regardless because I was saying that if the other three officers that were present when George Floyd was unfortunately murdered, if they, just one of them had stepped in and stopped, you know, their fellow officer from doing what he did, he'd be alive today.</s>ABDELAZIZ: And you put him on your shoulder, you carried him over to the police, then what happened?</s>HUTCHINSON: I'm carrying him. My friends are surrounding me, protecting myself, and the man on my shoulder. He was, you know, still sort of getting, receiving blows. You could still feel people trying to hit him. I carried him over to the police and I said, here you are. And one of the police officers said, thank you, you did a good thing there.</s>ABDELAZIZ: What do you want people to take away when they look at that picture?</s>HUTCHINSON: I think, hopefully, they will take away breaking down the race barriers and realize and see that we're all one people, that we're all one race.</s>ABDELAZIZ: And this is what is so extraordinary about the Black Lives Matter Movement, Michael. It doesn't have one address, it doesn't have one leader, it is not a monolith, its how you interpret the idea. And for Patrick, interpreting that idea meant coming out on Saturday, even though he'd never attended any of the demonstrations, coming out on Saturday, trying to keep the peace between these two viciously opposed groups. And helping a man who could have potentially held prejudices against him, although he did not know who that man is, and he remains unidentified. And as you heard there, Patrick's hope is that, yes, in that moment, he acted on instinct. But that there is a message in that, and that everyone is equal, everyone is human. And he says he hopes that that man he has rescued might see that picture and think that way as well. Michael?</s>HOLMES: It would be interesting to see the other man's reaction indeed. Salma Abdulaziz, thanks for that. Fascinating. All right, we got to take a quick break. Health officials around the world agree face masks are the most effective way to prevent the spread of COVID- 19. So, why are so many people reluctant to wear them? We discuss after the break.