The former Atlanta police officer who shot and killed Rayshard Brooks never reported opening fire during a car chase and arrest in 2015 because he feared facing charges, according to a report.
Garrett Rolfe, 27, who among the three officers who shot and wounded Jackie Jermaine Harris after the chase, but never reported firing their weapons in their reports of the incident, a judge later said.
Dashcam’s video of the incident obtained by CNN shows Rolfe, who also made a statement after the incident, said he was concerned that the black suspect would hit him or another officer with his vehicle.
Rolfe can be heard saying, “I shot about three times,” and added a couple of minutes later that “that second time he came at us, I know I hit him about three times.”
The officer is also heard saying: “I was going to hit one of you with the truck, I mean that the shots were through the windshield,” according to CNN.
“You know what the media is like,” he says, and then adds that “with the atmosphere that (expletives) are going to charge us, the way that (Howard Fulton County DA) is Paul Howard.”
Rolfe is also heard frantically but unsuccessfully trying to call the International Brotherhood of Police Officers, which is standard practice for police officers after the shooting, CNN reported.
A female officer is heard trying to calm the shaken officer, whose weapon was unloaded three times in the incident, while his two partners unloaded their weapons once, the network reported, citing the investigator’s supplemental report.
Harris, who was shot in the back, pleaded guilty to charges including theft, fleeing arrest, property damage and damage to a police vehicle, according to court records cited by CNN. He received probation.
Police told the outlet that the shooting is still under investigation, nearly five years after it happened.
While awaiting trial in January 2016, Harris sent a letter to Judge Doris Downs from jail.
“I was shot numerous times and an Atlanta police officer hit me in the back once. I had no weapon and did not attempt in any way to harm the officer, ”he wrote, CNN reported.
“This Atlanta police officer used unjustifiable deadly force against me. I also feel that the Atlanta Police Department is trying to cover up their misdeeds. Nowhere in the police report does it say anything about my shooting or the lethal force that was used against me. “
In February, Howard announced that his office would not file criminal charges against the three officers, according to a letter that Rolfe’s lawyer sent to CNN.
“We have determined that there was no criminal conduct related to the actions of the aforementioned officers,” Howard wrote to then-Atlanta Police Chief Erica Shields.
Harris attacked the unidentified police officer whom he believes shot him in his 2016 letter to Downs.
“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 conceived of as a ‘cover-up’,” he wrote.
“They have not only offended me but also society by allowing this officer to continue patrolling the streets of Metro Atlanta,” added Harris.
Rolfe is charged with felony murder, five counts of aggravated assault, one count of first-degree criminal property damage, and four counts of violation of oath in Brooks’ death outside of Wendy’s.
Her former partner, Devin Brosnan, faces charges of aggravated assault and three counts of violation of oath.
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