As a criminal defense attorney, Townhall columnist Marina Medvin knows better than most what qualifies as a justifiable homicide. Non-criminal homicides often arise as an act of necessity in self-defense, which is what Medvin persuasively argues happened in the admittedly unfortunate death of Rayshard Brooks.
After being lawfully detained by Atlanta police officers Devin Brosnan and Garrett Rolfe and failing a breathalyzer test, the officers attempt to arrest Mr. Brooks.
In the next two seconds, Mr. Brooks made a series of decisions that irrevocably altered the lives of all three men. (Townhall)
Mr. Brooks begins struggling and pulling away forcefully as the two officers attempt to handcuff him. The struggle thrashes all three men onto the pavement. The officers are continuously giving Mr. Brooks commands to stop and warn him that they will have to tase him if he doesn’t stop resisting and fighting them. Ofc. Brosnan takes out his taser and points it at Mr. Brooks, who manages to get it out of the officer’s hands. The officers can be heard on the bodycam footage telling Mr. Brooks not to touch the taser. Mr. Brooks succeeds in stealing the taser away from Ofc. Brosnan and throws the two officers off of him. He punches Ofc. Rolfe and breaks free, running back from the officers on the ground, stolen taser in hand.
Mr. Brooks has now committed a felony obstruction by fighting the officers, a felony assault by striking the officers to rob them of the taser, and a felony robbery by stealing the taser while using force.
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Mr. Brooks, while running forwards, then turns his hand bearing the taser back at Ofc. Rolfe. Mr. Brooks also turns his head back and looks behind him (while continuing to run forwards). Mr. Brooks then discharges the taser at the officer running behind him. Mr. Brooks has just committed another felony act of aggravated assault on an officer. Ofc. Rolfe ducks and moves out of the way to avoid being shot with the taser, while simultaneously switching from holding his taser to his firearm. This all happens in the course of one second.
In the next second, Mr. Brooks continues running forwards, and again turns his hand bearing the taser back at Ofc. Rolfe and looks back at him. The two men appear in a duel position, their arms, weapons in hand, pointed at one another. Mr. Brooks is in the commission of another felony assault. Ofc. Rolfe then shoots his firearm three times, with two of the bullets striking Mr. Brooks and taking him down. As soon as Mr. Brooks is down, Ofc. Rolfe holsters his weapon and screams, “put your hands behind your back!”
READ NEXT: Fifteen Police Officers Have Died Since Nationwide Protests Began. Here’s Who They Are. >>
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“Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” (Isaiah 5:20).
What we have here is an effort by black DAs, and officials to deprive these law enforcement officers of their constitutional rights. WHY? Because the officers are white and they are black. This is racism at its worst. And at the same time these same corrupt officials are claiming our nation is racist.
Folks, they are pushing hard for a race war. How? Because if they don’t take control of good officers and put them in jail and then abolish the Police Departments, THEY will riot and start the war. OH, THEY ALREADY HAVE.
COMPLY DONT DIE
Bart i agree completely. If you assault Police Officers it will never turn out good for you. Parents need to teach their children that. That being said i think that this shooting was just crazy. It may have been lawful??? But just because you CAN do something doesn’t mean you SHOULD. He was running AWAY from the officers with a discharged Taser. They had his ID and his vehicle. They could have waited for him to come back at a future time to retrieve both. There was no reason they needed to shoot this man. They talk of Police training. Train your Officers to use their BRAINS before they use their weapons. And yes i have been in Public service 40+ years. I have been in fights with people and those people got their azz’s whipped and then taken to jail. that how it was in the OLDE days.
Maybe you are getting it. Right now, the majority of black and even latino kids are being taught that they MIGHT get away if they fight hard enough, run fast enough and have enough political power.
Say about that political power, a black man in Dallas suckered the black woman police chief into coming to a rally, supposedly to “speak”. But when she got there, they did not give her a SECOND of time. Drowned her out. She learned?????? I doubt it.
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IF HE COULD HAVE BEEN KILLED TWICE.. I WOULD HAVE KILL BROOKS TWICE
It might have been legal, justified but he will be found guilty. To bad.
Mike, Legal yes. Justified???? Running away,Unarmed???. for a SUI. (Sitting under the influence) Officers need training on common sense. In Mesa AZ they shot and killed a man crawling in a hotel hallway in his underwear with 5 officers pointing AR’s at him. Where is the justice in that??? He was white, the officer was acquitted. No riots no Destruction. Just sadness.
not necessarily, George Zimmerman was railroaded by a pathetic dolt of a prosecutor and a jury saw through that travesty and found him not guilty. hopefully that will happen here as well.
he died because of his stupied actions I don’t care what race you are you do that you are subject to die me I don’t care if the cop is black white or frigging pink I don’t argue with them they want to put me in cuffs fine they will come off and when bond is set will call bondsman and get everything setup for court so charges will be dropped do it the smart way and live dumb way you die
Wise advice Truckman. To bad Many Parents of EVERY race dont instil those values anymore.
100% correct, and I’ve lived my life this way. Argue in court not in the street. Stacy Abrams is on TV with opposite advice; she says you must resist and run, because of 200 years of oppression has created justified rage or something. Her black privilege is showing.
Sure don’t look like she follows her own advice.
Agree 100%, Truckmant!
Thank God we have a few in Georgia who doesn’t follow the commie racist black Mayors, etc of DIMycrat cities that are more than willing to jump on the bandwagon and ruin good cops lives…
If it was up to the Racist black Mayor of Atlanta,,, these officers would be toast.
Do not let them justify resistance of arrest because if you do you have given the criminal section of our population permission to commit any crime they wish.
Sounds reasonable to me but if this officer wins his case, radical blacks will tear Atlanta apart again.
They may tear up Atlanta but we can’t sacrifice this officer who did the right thing because of it. These people will tear up cities regardless of the outcome. I am so sick of this perpetual victim mentality everyone can make their life what they want it to be. Act like a decent person with some common sense and things like this won’t happen.
Gene: Only if paid by Soros’ Antifa and Allowed by the decent citizens of Atlanta.
Yes it was totally justified but maybe they could have wounded him rather than kill him.
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
June 16, 2020 at 11:35 am
In the 1600s there were NO COUNTRIES in central Africa, so the premise fails.
The Blacks that were sold as Slaves were from NEIGHBORING TRIBES THAT WERE ATTACKED, THEIR LANDS AND LIVESTOCK STOLEN, the survivors were SOLD for more arms and ammunition to attack more neighboring villages.
interesting…. not what I presented on this site.
Just like junkie gawge, Brooks is a career criminal and basically Brooks got what he asked for!
What part of “Do Not Resist Arrest” don’t people get? Once an officer decides to take you into custody, SHUT YOUR MOUTH AND COMPLY! It’s that simple.
The BLAME lies with the legislative, executive and judicial branches of government.
The Man, while it was obvious he had arrived at the location too drunk to drive, he did so without harming anyone.
Congenial with the officers UNTIL the arrest.
In a friendlier time, BEFORE cops became REVENUE ENHANCING OPERATIVES for the three branches, the police would have had him call a friend to come down and drive him home.
HOWEVER, the amount of LOST REVENUE to the government AND the lawyer profession would have made too many political appointees upset.
EXACTLY the same reason Eric Garner lost his life in NYC: Eric died because the government couldn’t collect the taxes that had already been paid for selling single cigarettes from a pack he ALREADY PURCHASED AND LEGALLY OWNED!
i agree about Eric Garner, his death was totally unnecessary, however this case is radically different b/c the man resisted arrest, fought police, punched an officer, stole a taser, and attempted to use the taser on the officer. the man wasn’t killed for drunk driving but a slew of felonies while drunk. as far as drinking and driving, the problem is too many people have lost their lives to drunk drivers! it’s good that law enforcement takes drunk driving seriously!
So you think you should resist arrest. Try it sometime. You might learn a valuable lesson, if you live long enough.
I think the following thoughts have not occurred to anyone. At least I have not yet heard it. Remember the video, which has been widely and clearly shown by those reporting the action. In the last section, where the officer felt he had to discharge his firearm, CONSIDER THIS: If the man firing the taser back at the officer had been successful in immobilizing the officer with that taser, the man firing it could then easily run back and disarm the officer and kill him and the other officer with the first officer’s own weapon. He could then take all of the police weapons and threaten anyone who came near him. THE OFFICER PURSUING HIM SHOULD THEREFORE RIGHTFULLY FEAR THAT THIS SCENARIO PUT HIS OWN LIFE AND THAT OF OTHERS IN DANGER, SO HE WAS JUSTIFIED IN STOPPING THE IMMINENT DANGER BY SHOOTING THE ONE NOW CONTROLLING THE TASER!!! THIS IS A KILLING IN SELF-DEFENSE, WHICH IS A JUSTIFIABLE HOMICIDE!!! It is also the officer’s sworn duty for the protection of the public to prevent such action. WHEN will such subjects learn to FIRST OBEY the commands of police officers and later straighten out any disagreements with them? An arrest does not necessarily mean a conviction and lives will not be lost, if they follow this procedure instead of resisting arrest.
The cops had his name and address. They could have picked him up at home later. He did NOTHING worthy of DEATH. Tazers will not KILL you if you’re tazed only once. The cop could have fired to wound in the legs but he chose to KILL him. That’s 2nd degree murder in this case, or at the very least, negligent homicide.
Had Brooks complied and went peacfully he would probably still be alive today. Once you fight with police and try to escape capture you shouldn’t complain about what happened to you because it was YOU that brought the trouble on yourself and there is no one else to blame because YOU made a bad choice and caused things to escelate. I know the snowflakes and demonrats don’t believe in personal responsibility but if more people would practice it things would get a whole lot better.
I suppose those cops should’ve just let him go,
ya we’ll get the taser back tomorrow. No problem.
I’m sure tomorrow when your sober maybe we can talk.