As details emerged of what happened when the Atlanta police shot and killed Rayshard Brooks as he fled from them outside a Wendy’s restaurant in Atlanta, political leaders drew parallels and contrasts with the other recent police-involved killings of black people that have ignited protests across the nation.
Late George Floyd
*Rayshard Brooks
The Fulton County medical examiner’s office confirmed on Sunday that Mr. Brooks’s death was a homicide and that the cause of death was “gunshot wounds of the back.” The office’s statement said he had been hit by two shots, causing “organ injuries and blood loss.”
Representative James Clyburn, Democrat of South Carolina, said on Sunday that he did not believe that lethal force was necessary in the police’s encounter with Mr. Brooks, who had dozed off at the wheel of a car while waiting on the restaurant’s drive-through line. (An earlier version of this item misstated his view in one passage.)
“They’d already patted him down, he had no weapon on him — where did they think he was going to go?” Mr. Clyburn said. “So he’s running away — my goodness, you’ve got his car, you can easily find him. But no, you fire bullets into his back.”
Appearing on the CNN program “State of the Union,” Mr. Clyburn continued, “That is not what you’d call corresponding force. And so I think the mayor is right, this did not call for lethal force.”
Stacey Abrams, the former minority leader in the Georgia House of Representatives and Democratic gubernatorial candidate, said she saw a direct link to the police-involved killings of black people that have sparked protests demanding an overhaul of policing nationwide.
“We need reformation of how police officers do their jobs, how law enforcement does its job, because what happened yesterday to Rayshard Brooks was a function of excessive force,” Ms. Abrams said Sunday on the ABC program “This Week.” “The fact that they were either embarrassed or, you know, panicked led them to murder a man who they knew only had a Taser in his hand.”
However, Senator Tim Scott, Republican of South Carolina, said on the NBC program “Meet the Press” that he did not think the case was in the same category as other recent killings by the police that have been widely regarded as clearly unjustified.
The body-camera video of the encounter, he said, “is disturbing to watch, but I’m not sure that it’s as clear as what we’ve seen around the country.”
When asked if there should be a federal standard for the use of force, Mr. Scott said it would be “difficult to establish a codified practice,” but added that an effort to find the best existing practices at departments around the country would be helpful.
He added that he wanted to see clearer policies on chokeholds, a contentious restraint method that restricts air flow. Some cities and states have declared outright bans on such tactics in recent weeks.
Representative Karen Bass, Democrat of California and chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, said she saw a lot common ground between the police and officials at all levels who support the protesters’ demands for a wholesale rethinking of law enforcement.
“You hear police say all the time, ‘Don’t put us in a position of solving society’s problems,” Ms. Bass said on “Fox News Sunday.” “Because we have not put money into social health and economic issues like homelessness and substance abuse, the police then are left to pick up the pieces. So we need to invest in a comprehensive manner.”