Lance LoRusso, attorney for the former Atlanta police officer charged with murder, claims Rayshard Brooks was not running away when he was shot and killed.
LoRusso represents former officer Garrett Rolfe. He made his comments Wednesday on the Fox News show “The Ingraham Angle.”
"Mr. Brooks was not running away," he said. "Mr. Brooks turned and offered extreme violence toward a uniformed law enforcement officer. If he was able to deploy the Taser, it would incapacitate officer Rolfe through his body armor, and at that point, if he decided to disarm another officer, he would be in possession of a firearm."
Prosecutors brought murder charges Wednesday against the white former police officer, saying that Brooks, a black man, posed no threat when he was gunned down.
Brooks was holding a taser he had snatched from one of the officers but was 18 feet, 3 inches away when he was shot by Rolfe and was running away at the time, District Attorney Paul Howard said.
An autopsy found that Brooks was shot twice in the back.
LoRusso also pushed back at claims Rolfe had kicked Brooks as he lay dying.
"My client never kicked Mr. Brooks," the lawyer said. "If there was a video of my client kicking Mr. Brooks, you would have seen it."
Jeffrey Rodack ✉
Jeffrey Rodack, who has nearly a half century in news as a senior editor and city editor for national and local publications, has covered politics for Newsmax for nearly seven years.
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