Story at a glance
- The Atlanta Police Department is offering a reward for information on the Wendy’s fire in Atlanta.
- The fire was set in protest following the death of Rayshard Brooks during a police confrontation.
The death of Rayshard Brooks, a black man killed by a white police officer in Atlanta on Friday, has reignited protests in the city as demonstrators call for the officers involved to be criminally charged. At one point late on Saturday, the Wendy’s restaurant where the incident happened went up in flames.
The Atlanta Police Department (APD) released photos and videos Sunday of a masked white woman they believe is connected to the fire that ravaged the Wendy’s restaurant.
They are offering a $10,000 reward for anyone with information on the people responsible.
@StopCrimeATL is offering a $10,000 reward for information on the individuals responsible for starting a fire that led to the destruction of a Wendy’s restaurant at 125 University Avenue. Call 404-577-TIPS (8477) or submit information online at https://t.co/aS17unWjQi. pic.twitter.com/GsVaka56xT
— Atlanta Police Department (@Atlanta_Police) June 14, 2020
In a separate tweet, police linked a video that may also contain information on who started the Wendy’s fire.
Police said the woman was “attempting to hide her identity,” according to Reuters, and that she was wearing a black baseball cap and face mask. A video clip filmed by a protester appears to show a woman encouraging the flames, Reuters reports.
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“Look at the white girl trying to burn down the Wendy’s,” the man recording the video can be heard saying. “This wasn’t us.”
According to the Atlanta-Journal Constitution (AJC), officials welcome other information that may be helpful in this case.
Local outlet WSB-TV confirms that the fire at the Wendy’s burned until Sunday morning.
Speaking with the AJC, Cortez Stafford, a spokesman for Atlanta Fire, said the emergency responders had trouble quelling the blaze because it wasn’t safe enough to intervene.
Brooks’s death comes days after worldwide protests against racism and police brutality, prompted by the death of George Floyd, a black man who died when a white police officer knelt on his neck for several minutes during an arrest.
Brooks, who was 27, was shot dead by Atlanta police officer Garret Rolfe in the Wendy’s parking lot. An autopsy report ruled his death a homicide caused by gunshot wounds to the back.
The fatal encounter happened when a Wendy’s employee called the police to say that someone had fallen asleep in his car in the restaurant’s drive-through lane, Reuters reports.
When officers found Brooks in his car, the encounter seemed friendly at first, as captured on the officer’s body camera and surveillance video. Reuters reports that Brooks cooperated with a sobriety test and talked about his daughter’s birthday.
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said on CNN the interaction was “not confrontational” and “this was a guy that you were rooting for.”
When an officer moved to arrest him, Brooks struggled with the two officers at the scene, breaking free and running across the parking lot with what appeared to be a police Taser in his hand.
Video from the restaurant’s cameras shows Brooks turning as he runs and possibly aiming the Taser at the officers before one of them fires his gun and Brook falls, according to Reuters.
Atlanta’s police chief, Erika Shields, resigned over the shooting. Rolfe was fired, and the other officer involved, who is also white, was put on administrative leave.
Brooks died during the third week of protests in the city, as demonstrators also decried the deaths of Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor, all at the hands of police or white shooters.
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