Video footage appears to show a masked white woman setting fire to a Wendy’s restaurant near where a black man was shot dead by police, as authorities offer a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of arsonists.
The fast-food outlet was torched late on Saturday during demonstrations that erupted over the killing of 27-year-old Rayshard Brooks by police officers on Friday.
A video clip filmed by a protester that appeared to show a woman fanning the flames.
Police also posted photos on social media of the white woman ‘attempting to hide her identity’, wearing a black baseball cap and face mask.
Atlanta Police are looking for this person who was seen next to the Atlanta Wendy’s as the fire took hold amid protests over the death of
Video from another angle also saw a woman attempting to accelerate the flames
In the footage, protesters in the crowd can be heard condemning the woman for fanning the flames, and insisting that it was not Black Lives Matters supporters that lit the fire.
‘Look at the white girl trying to set s*** on fire,’ the man recording the video can heard saying. ‘Look at that white girl trying to burn down a Wendy’s.’
‘This wasn’t us,’ he adds. ‘This wasn’t us!’
The Wendy’s restaurant went up in flames as demonstrators in Atlanta took to the streets and chanted for the officers in Brooks’ case to be criminally charged.
Atlanta fire officials said that they were unable to send trucks through the crowds of protesters blocking the roads around the Wendy’s, in fear of endangering both the firefighters and the protesters.
The police tweeted the video of the person they believe to be responsible for the arson
A woman could be seen leaning into the Wendy’s restaurant and spraying something insider
Protestors nearby ended up setting off firecrackers outside the restaurant as it was on fire
As the fire grew, fears mounted that it could ignite a neighboring gas station, but by midnight the fire had burned out without spreading further.
Gerald Griggs, an attorney and a vice president of Atlanta’s NAACP chapter, estimated there were 150 people protesting at the scene as he walked with them Saturday afternoon.
‘The people are upset,’ Griggs said. ‘They want to know why their dear brother Rayshard Brooks was shot and killed when he was merely asleep on the passenger side and not doing anything.’
Officer Garrett Rolfe was fired from the force after firing the shots that killed Brooks on Friday night.
Video footage showed several people approaching the Wendy’s building in the chaos
The Wendys restaurant was seen burning after protesters set it on fire on Saturday
Fresh protests rose up after an Atlanta police officer shot and killed Rayshard Brooks, an unarmed African American man outside the restaurant
Demonstrators the restaurant on fire during protests in Atlanta
Brooks was killed after police were called to the Wendy’s after reports he had fallen asleep in his car and was blocking the drive-thru line.
Officers tried to take him into custody after he failed a field sobriety test, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
Investigators say Brooks fought with officers and took one of their Tasers before fleeing and pointing the stun gun at Rolfe as he ran away. Rolfe had been a member of the department since 2013.
Officer Devin Bronsan, who was also present but did not fire, has been placed on administrative leave pending an internal investigation. Bronsan joined the department in 2018. Both the officers are white.
Bodycam footage shows Brooks cooperates with the officers initially, agreeing to be searched for weapons and to complete a field sobriety test. Brooks then insisted that all he’d had to drink was ‘one and a half daiquiris.’
The officers then administer a breathalyzer test, as Brooks continues to insist that he is fine to drive home. The breathalyser reading comes back as .108.
Officer Garrett Rolfe (left) was fired from the force after firing the shots that killed Brooks on Friday night, while Officer Devin Bronsan (right), who was also present but did not fire, has been placed on administrative leave
This screen grab taken from body camera video provided by the Atlanta Police Department shows Rayshard Brooks speaking with Officer Garrett Rolfe in the parking lot of Wendy’s. Rolfe has been fired following the fatal shooting of Brooks and a second officer has placed on admin
Bodycam footage shows a polite interaction with Brooks for 30 minutes before the shooting. Though he appears intoxicated, Brooks cooperates with police until they tried to arrest him
About 30 minutes into the interaction, Rolfe tells Brooks that he believes he is too drunk to operate a motor vehicle and that he is being placed under arrest. As the officers begin to handcuff him, Brooks begins to struggle, knocking the bodycamera to the ground.
Little else is seen of the interaction, but the officers are heard shouting ‘stop fighting, stop fighting,’ a taser is heard being deployed, and three shots are heard seconds later.
Video from other angles has already shown that Brooks swung punches at the officers, stole a taser, and fled, turning to point what appears to be the stolen taser at Rolfe before Rolfe unholsters his gun and shoots Brooks.
The shooting led to the resignation of Atlanta Police Chief Erika Shields.
Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said on Saturday that she did not believe the shooting was a justified use of deadly force.
Atlanta police officers and suspect Rayshard Brooks, left, during an arrest in Atlanta, Georgia
Lawyers for Brooks’ family said he was the father of a young daughter who was celebrating her birthday on Saturday.
They said the officers had no right to use deadly force even if he had fired the Taser, a non-lethal weapon, in their direction.
Prosecutors will decide by midweek whether to bring charges, Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard said on Sunday.
‘The victim did not seem to present any kind of threat to anyone, and so the fact that it would escalate to his death just seems unreasonable,’ Howard told CNN.
Shields, the ousted police chief, said in a statement: ‘For more than two decades, I have served alongside some of the finest men and women in the Atlanta Police Department. Out of a deep and abiding love for this City and this department, I offered to step aside as police chief.’
A burned Wendys restaurant is seen on the second day following the police shooting death of Rayshard Brooks in the restaurant’s parking in Atlanta, Georgia
The Wendy’s restaurant where 27-year-old Rayshard Brooks was killed was set on fire on Saturday while hundreds of people marched by to protest the killing
Protesters rally against racial inequality and the police shooting death of Rayshard Brooks, in Atlanta on Saturday
Protesters chant slogans, hold signs, and walk near the Wendy’s fast food restaurant on University Avenue in Atlanta on Saturday, before blaze destroyed the restaurant
‘APD has my full support, and Mayor Bottoms has my support on the future direction of this department. I have faith in the Mayor, and it is time for the city to move forward and build trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve,’ Shields continued.
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms announced Chief Shield’s resignation, saying the city’s top cop offered to ‘immediately step aside as police chief so that the city may move forward, with urgency, in rebuilding the trust so desperately needed throughout our communities.’
Brooks’ death on Friday came against a backdrop of nationwide and international protests against racial injustice and brutality by law enforcement following the May 25 death of George Floyd, an African-American man, as he was arrested in Minneapolis.