The widow of Rayshard Brooks, the 27-year-old Black Atlanta man who was shot and killed last June by a police officer in a Wendy’s parking lot, is raising questions about the new district attorney, who transferred the high-profile police shooting case to the state attorney general.
Tomika Miller said that D.A. Fani Willis failed to update her on  the status of the case, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and felt it was a betrayal of her trust.
“That was another slap in the face of disrespect,” Miller  said at a press conference. “Not only did you hurt me, but you hurt everyone out here who was counting on you to do the right thing. You say that you don’t run from hard cases, but baby you ran from this one.”
She spoke at a press event held by The People’s Uprising Task Force, a group of local activists, community organizers, and elected officials.
Willis, who was elected in November, sent a letter on Jan. 27, asking that Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr move the case from her office because of the actions of former D.A. Paul Howard, according to NPR.  She cited actions like using video evidence in a campaign ad having caused "sufficient question of the appropriateness of this office continuing to handle the investigation and possible prosecution of these cases," she wrote. Howard’s conduct is the subject of a Georgia Bureau of Investigations review.
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Howard charged Officer Garrett Rolfe with felony murder in Brooks' death.  Rolfe and another officer were trying to apprehend him after receiving a call about a man sleeping in a drive-through lane. After a scuffle, Rolfe opened fire, fatally wounding the man. The Atlanta Police Department fired Rolfe. He is currently free on a $500,000 bond.
"Today we gather to call on the Attorney General's Office to do something simple, and that is to give this case to a similar metro Atlanta D.A., that has the experience and has the resources to try this case," State Rep. Erica Thomas said at the press conference. Healso wants   the D.A.’s office to create a victims’ advocate office.

Carr now has the option of prosecuting the case through his office or transferring  it to another district attorney. But NAACP Atlanta Vice President and civil rights attorney Gerald Griggs said at the press conference that the case should go to a prosecutor in “a similarly situated jurisdiction so that Rayshard’s family can get justice,” the AJC reported.