Atlanta police shooting: Rayshard Brooks death declared homicide

A medical examiner in Atlanta, Georgia, has declared the death of an African-American man to be homicide after he was shot in an encounter with police.

Rayshard Brooks died while fleeing from two white police officers in a restaurant car park late on Friday.

Protests erupted after his death, weeks after another black man, George Floyd, was killed in custody in Minneapolis.

Atlanta's police chief quit and the police officer suspected of shooting Mr Brooks was fired.

Following his death, the Wendy's drive-through restaurant where he was stopped was set on fire on Saturday.

Thousands of people joined Black Lives Matter protests across the US at the weekend.

READ ALSO:
Black Lives Matter: Activist Oluwatoyin Salau Found Dead In Florida

In Chicago, a statue of the first US President, George Washington, was spray-painted with the words "slave owner".

Washington was an active slave holder for 56 years. While spoke of his desire to end the practice, at the time of his death in 1799, 317 enslaved people lived on his Mount Vernon estate. The founding father left instructions in his will for the 123 slaves he owned outright to be freed, only once his wife Martha had died.

Crowds also gathered again in Washington DC near the White House while in Los Angeles, a large number of LGBT protesters marched with rainbow flags to denounce what they said was police brutality, racism and transphobia.

And anger over the killing of Mr Floyd, who died as a police officer held his knee on his neck on 25 May, fuelled new protests over the weekend in the UK.

Read full story here

SOURCE: BBC