This case was badly handled from the beginning and now it’s coming to an ignominious end. A special prosecutor in Georgia has announced that charges will be dropped against two officers involved in the death of Rayshard Brooks:

A Georgia special prosecutor announced Tuesday that murder and assault charges will be dismissed against two Atlanta police officers involved in the fatal shooting of Rayshard Brooks in June 2020, saying the officers acted reasonably in response to a deadly threat.

“Both acted as reasonable officers would under the facts and circumstances of the events of that night,” special prosecutor Peter Skandalakis said. “Both acted in accordance with well-established law and were justified in the use of force regarding the situation.”…

Former Gwinnett County District Attorney Daniel Porter provided video analysis in the press conference Tuesday. He explained Georgia officers are allowed to use deadly force when faced with a deadly weapon, including a Taser, so prosecutors determined the shooting was legal…

“Was it objectively reasonable that (Rolfe)can use deadly force? We determined it was,” Skandalakis said.

In case you’ve forgotten how this went down, here’s my original write-up of the shooting. Some of the tweets and video I included have been deleted (or accounts have been suspended) but the bulk of it is still there. Basically, police were called when Brooks fell asleep in the drive-thru line of a Wendy’s. A breathalyzer test showed he was intoxicated and therefore couldn’t leave in his car.

Police had a long discussion with him during which he seemed mostly agreeable but the moment officers tried to arrest him, he began fighting and throwing punches. He was tased but didn’t seem affected. He eventually got up and ran with one of the officer’s tasers in his hand. Officer Garrett Rolfe tased Brooks again and chased him at which point Brooks turned and aimed the taser he had taken from the other officer at Rolfe. Officer Rolfe pulled his firearm and fired three shots, two of which hit Brooks and killed him. Here’s the latter part of the bodycam video:

Both officers were fired the next day and a few days after that they were charged with murder by Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard. But that’s where the story took a bit of a turn. Georgia’s Attorney General opened an investigation into DA Paul Howard’s handling of the case after it was revealed Howard had issued grand jury subpoenas against the two officers when there was no grand jury in session. Howard also charged both officers with murder before the Georgia Bureau of Investigations had completed its investigation of the circumstances of the case.

Not coincidentally, Howard was running for reelection at the time. He eventually lost that race and Peter Skandalakis was appointed as a special prosecutor to handle it. He’s the person who announced the charges would be dropped today. Even before this decision the writing seemed to be on the wall. Officer Rolfe was reinstated and given backpay in May 2021 even though he was still facing a murder charge.

They key point in this case was Brooks decision to turn and fire the taser at Officer Rolfe. Had he not done that he would not have presented a threat to the officers and they would not have been justified in shooting him.

The Atlanta police policy manual says that an officer can use deadly force when, “He or she reasonably believes that the suspect possesses a deadly weapon or any object, device, or instrument which, when used offensively against a person, is likely to or actually does result in serious bodily injury and when he or she reasonably believes that the suspect poses an immediate threat of serious bodily injury to the officer or others.”

Two videos to wrap this up. First, here’s Skandalakis announcing that charges will be dropped because the officers committed no crimes.

Finally, in this longer clip a former DA walks through the bodycam footage to explain how the law applies as the situation developed.