To help readers understand what happens in the video without having to view it multiple times, USA TODAY spoke with four law professors who analyzed the footage in a legal context.
, and important context that may be presented in potential criminal or civil trials.
“What about this suddenly turns into fear of Mr. Brooks having a weapon on him?” Macfarlane said. “Even just the mention, just the question whether you’re armed even though I know it’s routine, I think turns this into an encounter that now feels much more dangerous than it did just a few minutes before.”in a civil case, Macfarlane says she’d want everyone involved to see the early footage, well before the shooting took place.
“This is, I think, one of the key moments here,” said David Harris, professor of law at the University of Pittsburgh. “Police officers always have discretion on how they will handle any particular situation with very limited exceptions.” “But what I hope we’re all getting out of this conversation is we’ve gone way too far,” she said. “The commonsense approach to these conversations, is to give him a ride home or let someone come and pick him up.”
Brooks and the two officers fall to the ground, where Brosnan reaches for his Taser and attempts to deploy it. Brooks grabs for it and at one point punches the officer. As Brooks pulled away, Harris says officers would be allowed to use enough force to overcome Brooks' resistance. This is the main point of focus for Gardner, who says the first step is to look at Georgia law with respect to deadly force.
“It feels like a bang-bang situation where the officer then pulls out a firearm in response to the Taser being pointed at him and deploying,” Garner said. “When the officer shoots, Brooks is already turned around and continuing to run. So under that particular circumstance there’s a question of whether the officer reasonably believed at the point he shoots his weapon, that he had to shoot that weapon in order to prevent great bodily injury.
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