Garrett Rolfe faces a felony murder and other charges related to the Brooks murder outside an Atlanta fast food restaurant two weeks ago.
In images of the 2015 shooting released by the Fulton County Public Defender’s office and in a statement after the incident, Rolfe said he was concerned that the black suspect, Jackie Jermaine Harris, would hit Rolfe or another officer with his truck.
Crime scene images show the man’s van partially over a police cruiser, blood inside, bullet holes in the van’s windows and windshield, and broken glass everywhere.
Right after the incident, Rolfe can be heard saying, “I shot about three times,” and a couple of minutes later he said, “The second time he came at us I know I hit him about three times.”
Rolfe is heard saying, “I was going to hit one of you with the truck, I mean the shots went through the windshield.” He also said, “You know what the media is like,” and then he is heard saying “with the atmosphere that they are going to accuse us (expletives), as is (Fulton County Prosecutor) Paul Howard.”
For much of the recording, Rolfe is heard trying urgently and unsuccessfully to call the International Brotherhood of Police Officers, which is a routine for officers after the shooting. A female police officer is heard throughout the video trying to calm Rolfe down.
Rolfe’s gun was unloaded three times, and the other two officers each unloaded their firearm once, according to the investigator’s supplemental report that CNN obtained from the Public Defender’s office.
Harris pleaded guilty to charges including theft, fleeing arrest, property damage and damage to a police vehicle, and received probation, according to court records.
‘Nowhere in the police report says anything about my shooting’
Harris was shot in the back, according to court testimony. CNN contacted police to tell them that the incident is still under investigation, nearly 5 years later. The police incident report only indicates that Harris was transported to the hospital “due to injuries during the incident.”
CNN previously reported that Harris alleged that there was a cover-up in his shooting since it was not mentioned in any of his arrest reports.
In January 2016, Harris sent a letter to Judge Doris Downs from jail while awaiting trial. “I was shot numerous times, and an Atlanta police officer hit me in the back once. I had no weapon and did not attempt to cause any harm to the officer,” Harris writes. “This Atlanta police officer used unjustifiable lethal force against me. I also feel that the Atlanta Police Department is trying to cover up his wrongdoing. Nowhere in the police report does it say anything about my shooting or the lethal force that was used against me”. ”
Downs told CNN in an email last week that he referred the incident to multiple agents to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI), both by email and by phone shortly after the hearing.
According to court records, the judge and the assistant district attorney discussed parole over concerns that officers did not include the shooting in any of their reports.
DA decided not to press charges, according to the letter
Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard announced in February this year that his office would not file criminal charges against Rolfe and the other two officers, according to a letter provided to CNN by Rolfe’s attorney.
“We have determined that there was no criminal conduct related to the actions of the officers mentioned above,” says Howard’s letter to then-Atlanta Police Chief Erica Shields. Howard also informed Shields that her office was not filing criminal charges against any of the three officers. “Paul Howard exempted my client from any wrongdoing,” Rolfe’s attorney, Noah Pines, told CNN in an email.
Harris convicted the unidentified officer whom he believes shot in his 2016 letter to the judge.
“Not only have I been harmed and unfairly caused bodily harm by a ‘Peace Officer’, but the lack of documentation by the Atlanta Police Department can only be thought of as a ‘cover-up’. I have not only been offended but also society by allowing this officer to continue patrolling the streets of Metro Atlanta. ”
CNN’s Keith Allen contributed to this report.
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