Former Atlanta officer who shot Rayshard Brooks asks to be reinstated

The former Atlanta police officer who shot and killed Rayshard Brooks in June is asking to be reinstated on the force, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Thursday.

An attorney for Garrett Rolfe, who was dismissed by the police department a day after the June 12 shooting, told the city’s civil service board that his client was dismissed “without a proper investigation,” according to the newspaper.

Lance LoRusso said Rolfe did not get a chance to respond to his termination notice, despite a city police department policy allowing five days to do so.

The Atlanta Police Department declined to comment when reached by The Hill.

The city’s attorney, Allegra Lawrence-Hardy, said that keeping Rolfe on the force “would’ve been extremely disruptive,” the Journal-Constitution reported. She added that the Wendy’s where Brooks was shot was burned to the ground the day after his death.

Rolfe has been charged with felony murder for Brooks’s killing, which came on the heels of George Floyd’s death on May 25 and amid nationwide protests against police brutality and racial injustice.