• Rayshard Brooks' widow Tomika Miller arrives before the start of a public viewing for Rayshard Brooks at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. EPA
    Rayshard Brooks' widow Tomika Miller arrives before the start of a public viewing for Rayshard Brooks at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. EPA
  • Tomika Miller walks out of the church, behind the casket of her husband, Rayshard Brooks, following a public viewing at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. AP
    Tomika Miller walks out of the church, behind the casket of her husband, Rayshard Brooks, following a public viewing at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. AP
  • People stand in line at the public viewing for Rayshard Brooks, the Black man shot dead by an Atlanta police officer, at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia. Reuters
    People stand in line at the public viewing for Rayshard Brooks, the Black man shot dead by an Atlanta police officer, at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia. Reuters
  • A mourner takes a knee while paying respect to Rayshard Brooks, who was shot dead June 12 by an Atlanta police officer, during a viewing a day before his funeral at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. Reuters
    A mourner takes a knee while paying respect to Rayshard Brooks, who was shot dead June 12 by an Atlanta police officer, during a viewing a day before his funeral at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. Reuters
  • Images of George Floyd are seen in the protest area known as CHOP in Seattle, Washington. Getty Images
    Images of George Floyd are seen in the protest area known as CHOP in Seattle, Washington. Getty Images
  • A broken hear is painted on a street barricade near one of the entrances to what has been named the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest zone in Seattle. AP Photo
    A broken hear is painted on a street barricade near one of the entrances to what has been named the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest zone in Seattle. AP Photo
  • A person sits on the Cal Anderson Park field as Black Lives Matter signs hang on the fencein Seattle, Washington. Reuters
    A person sits on the Cal Anderson Park field as Black Lives Matter signs hang on the fencein Seattle, Washington. Reuters
  • A man treats a woman affected by pepper spray as Washington Metropolitan Police officers clash with demonstrators trying to pull down the statue of U.S. President Andrew Jackson in the middle of Lafayette Park. Reuters
    A man treats a woman affected by pepper spray as Washington Metropolitan Police officers clash with demonstrators trying to pull down the statue of U.S. President Andrew Jackson in the middle of Lafayette Park. Reuters
  • US Park Police officers fire pepper spray in Lafayette Park, Washington, DC. Reuters
    US Park Police officers fire pepper spray in Lafayette Park, Washington, DC. Reuters
  • Harry Hearns of the "community response team" talks to other protesters as they discuss strategies outside the Seattle Police Department's East Precinct in Seattle, Washington. Reuters
    Harry Hearns of the "community response team" talks to other protesters as they discuss strategies outside the Seattle Police Department's East Precinct in Seattle, Washington. Reuters

Public viewing held for Atlanta's Rayshard Brooks, who was killed by police


  • English
  • Arabic

Mourners filed through Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia on Monday for a public viewing of Rayshard Brooks, an African-American man who was shot dead by a white police officer amid protests against racial injustice.

Mourners lined up hours early outside the church where the Rev Martin Luther King Jr was once pastor and where Brooks’s funeral is set for Tuesday.

About an hour before the four-hour public viewing began, a gold-coloured casket carrying his body arrived at the church.

His widow, Tomika Miller, followed a short time later wearing a white dress printed with a photo of the two of them.

Officer Garrett Rolfe, 27, fatally shot Brooks, 27, twice in the back as he ran away after a struggle outside a Wendy's fast-food restaurant on June 12.

Video shows him appearing to point a Taser in the officer’s direction while running away.

The shooting happened against the backdrop of nationwide protests after the killing of George Floyd by a white Minneapolis officer, who knelt on the black man's neck for almost nine minutes.

Demonstrators have called for reforms to policing and an examination of racism in the US.

“I didn’t know Rayshard Brooks but just like George Floyd, we know him now,” said Manerva Harris, 42, who wore a shirt reading “I can't breathe.”

“Not even a week after they had buried Mr Floyd, now here we go where we have another black family going through the same thing.

“It’s hard and it’s just crazy that we’re still living like this today.”

A video feed from inside the church showed mourners, some wearing Black Lives Matter T-shirts and all wearing masks as a precaution against the coronavirus, filing past the casket where Brooks lay in a white suit and gold tie.

Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard last week announced 11 charges against Mr Rolfe, including felony murder.

A judge on Friday denied bail because of the nature of the charges.

New York

Meanwhile, a New York police officer was suspended without pay on Sunday after a video was posted online that appeared to show him putting an African-American man in a banned chokehold.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Monday that the officer stepped over the line.

“I think a lot of people have seen this very troubling video of an NYPD officer apparently using a banned chokehold, which is absolutely disturbing to watch and unacceptable," Mr de Blasio said,

A strong rebuke also came from New York City Police Commissioner Dermot Shea on Twitter.

The video showed many officers restraining the man, who was lying on his stomach. One officer appeared to have his arm wrapped around the man's neck.

NBC News reported that the black man in the video was taken to hospital late on Sunday.

Seattle

There was a second shooting in less than 48 hours in Seattle's police-free protest zone.

The victim was a 17-year-old who declined to speak with detectives, leaving the circumstances of the shooting unclear, police said on Monday.

Protesters have laid claim to a part of Seattle's Capitol Hill neighbourhood, declaring it an occupied protest zone and denying police entry.

The shooting happened late on Sunday night as protesters who marched from the zone to the police department’s West Precinct in the city centre were returning, officials said.

On Saturday night in the protest zone a 19-year-old man was killed and another, aged 33, was critically wounded in another shooting incident.

Responding police and emergency medics stayed at the edge of the protest zone before going in, officers said.

  • A demonstrator smiles as people march to Westminster during a Black Lives Matter protest, following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody, in London, Britain. REUTERS
    A demonstrator smiles as people march to Westminster during a Black Lives Matter protest, following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody, in London, Britain. REUTERS
  • Members of Hermine Prunier's yoga group hold up placards as they perform a choreography to an Indian song for world peace and protest to show their support for the Black Lives Matter movement on the Parvis des droits de l'homme, place du Trocadero, in Paris, during the French Festival of Music. AFP
    Members of Hermine Prunier's yoga group hold up placards as they perform a choreography to an Indian song for world peace and protest to show their support for the Black Lives Matter movement on the Parvis des droits de l'homme, place du Trocadero, in Paris, during the French Festival of Music. AFP
  • An inmate holds a sign to his cell window reading "We Matter" as Black Lives Matter supporters hold a protest against racial inequality outside Cook County Jail in Chicago, Illinois, U.S. REUTERS
    An inmate holds a sign to his cell window reading "We Matter" as Black Lives Matter supporters hold a protest against racial inequality outside Cook County Jail in Chicago, Illinois, U.S. REUTERS
  • National Guards form a line in front of "Black Lives Matter" protestors in Tulsa, Oklahoma where Donald Trump holds a campaign rally at the BOK Center. AFP
    National Guards form a line in front of "Black Lives Matter" protestors in Tulsa, Oklahoma where Donald Trump holds a campaign rally at the BOK Center. AFP
  • A demonstrator waves a U.S. flag painted with a police officer aiming a gun at a Black man, at a protest against racial injustice and the fatal Gardena shooting of 18 year-old security guard Andres Guardado by a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputy, in Compton, California, U.S. REUTERS
    A demonstrator waves a U.S. flag painted with a police officer aiming a gun at a Black man, at a protest against racial injustice and the fatal Gardena shooting of 18 year-old security guard Andres Guardado by a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputy, in Compton, California, U.S. REUTERS
  • A demonstrator knees as Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies prepare to fire pepper balls, flash-bangs and rubber bullets in a protest against the death of 18-year-old Andres Guardado and racial injustice, in Compton, California, U.S. REUTERS
    A demonstrator knees as Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies prepare to fire pepper balls, flash-bangs and rubber bullets in a protest against the death of 18-year-old Andres Guardado and racial injustice, in Compton, California, U.S. REUTERS
  • Protesters hold up fists at a gathering in support of the Black Lives Matter movement on Woodhouse Moor in Leeds in northern England, in the aftermath of the death of unarmed black man George Floyd in police custody in the US. AFP
    Protesters hold up fists at a gathering in support of the Black Lives Matter movement on Woodhouse Moor in Leeds in northern England, in the aftermath of the death of unarmed black man George Floyd in police custody in the US. AFP
  • A protester wearing a protective face mask holds a placard at a gathering in support of the Black Lives Matter movement on Woodhouse Moor in Leeds in northern England, in the aftermath of the death of unarmed black man George Floyd in police custody in the US. AFP
    A protester wearing a protective face mask holds a placard at a gathering in support of the Black Lives Matter movement on Woodhouse Moor in Leeds in northern England, in the aftermath of the death of unarmed black man George Floyd in police custody in the US. AFP
  • Friends of "Murphy", a man who died of gunshot wound during the Juneteenth celebration near the site of George Floyd's death, are mourning by a makeshirt memorial in Minneapolis, Minnesota. AFP
    Friends of "Murphy", a man who died of gunshot wound during the Juneteenth celebration near the site of George Floyd's death, are mourning by a makeshirt memorial in Minneapolis, Minnesota. AFP
  • Liverpool's Trent Alexander-Arnold with a message in support of the Black Lives Matter campaign on his boots, as play resumes behind closed doors following the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19). REUTERS
    Liverpool's Trent Alexander-Arnold with a message in support of the Black Lives Matter campaign on his boots, as play resumes behind closed doors following the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19). REUTERS
  • Activists hold placards reading 'Black Lives Matter' as they form a human chain in the center of Maastricht, The Netherlands. AFP
    Activists hold placards reading 'Black Lives Matter' as they form a human chain in the center of Maastricht, The Netherlands. AFP
  • Black Lives Matter supporter await the arrival of the Confederate Flag supports on Speedway Blvd outside of the Talladega Superspeedway. REUTERS
    Black Lives Matter supporter await the arrival of the Confederate Flag supports on Speedway Blvd outside of the Talladega Superspeedway. REUTERS

Washington

In Washington, DC, police tried to clear protesters from the city streets on Monday afternoon as the interior department said it would investigate police and security forces in the city.

The investigation will be conducted by a watchdog that will review the violent clearing of protesters from a square in front of the White House this month.

Police and other forces released tear gas and at times punched and clubbed a largely peaceful crowd of demonstrators.

They were driving the public away from Lafayette Square on June 1 ahead of a photo session for US President Donald Trump.