Atlanta Police Chief Erika Shields resigns after officer shoots, kills Rayshard Brooks
Tim Kephart
ATLANTA (CBS46) – Atlanta Police Chief Erika Shields resigned her position Saturday afternoon, less than 24 hours after an APD officer shot and killed Rayshard Brooks after a struggle in the parking lot of a fast food restaurant on the city's south side.
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said in a Saturday press conference the decision to resign was former Chief Shields' and the mayor said she accepted the resignation.
"Because of her desire that Atlanta be a model of what meaningful reform should look like across this country, Chief Shields has offered to immediately step aside as police chief so that the city may move forward with urgency and rebuilding the trust that is desperately needed throughout our communities,” Mayor Bottoms said Saturday.
Mayor Bottoms said the former chief will remain with the city in a role that has yet to be determined. Bottoms said the officer who fired the shot should be fired.
The former chief's resignation came just hours after the Georgia NAACP called for her to leave her position and capped off a more than two week period in Atlanta that saw peaceful protests, violent protests, two college students violently pulled form a car, multiple APD officers fired and charged for the car incident, and now a deadly police-involved shooting.
The incident involving two college students pulled from a car happened live on CBS46. Cameras captured two students being violently pulled out of their car after being hit with tasers. The footage sparked outrage and two of the officers were fired the next day. Charges were filed a few days later against six officers. Since then, two other officers have been fired for their roles in the incident.
https://www.cbs46.com/news/atlanta-police-chief-erika-shields-resigns-after-officer-shoots-kills-rayshard-brooks/article_891fdd32-adbc-11ea-825c-37c0669b4695.html