Atlanta Police and city work crews have removed a makeshift memorial and erected concrete barriers at the burned out Wendy’s restaurant at 125 University Avenue where Rayshard Brooks was gunned down by police, according to a report by AJC.
After the July 4 shooting death of 8-year-old Secoriea Turner across the street from the Wendy’s, Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms vowed that the site would be cleared of protesters. She made good on that Monday morning despite outcry from protesters who have been at the site since Brook’s death on June 12.
Bottoms said the city had been negotiating with protesters about occupying the site, but that ended with the death of Turner by a group of armed men who shot into the Turner family car. On July 5, another shooting took the life of a man and wounded two others at a gas station near the Wendy’s in a weekend of gun violence.
The Wendy’s was set aflame during protests on June 13 and three people have been arrested and charged with arson. In the nearly month since that incident, the remains of the Wendy’s was transformed by activists into the Rayshard Brooks Memorial & Peace Center, which has its on website. The site has been constantly occupied by “sleep-in” activists.
Protesters have been blocking University and Pryor Road with makeshift barricades for weeks and there have been ongoing clashes with police.
One of the protesters, who identified herself as Lady A, posted a video to the Rayshard Brooks Peace Center and YouTube stating that demonstrators who have occupied the Wendy’s site had nothing to do with the shooting of Secoriea Turner and sent their solidarity and condolences to the family. Watch the video below.
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