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The Atlanta Police Department is denying reports of a massive officer walkout following murder and aggravated assault charges being brought against the two officers involved in the shooting of Rayshard Brooks.

Social media chatter has been at a fever pitch all evening about walkouts in Zones 3 and 6. Police radio traffic in Zone 6 – which covers Inman Park, Old Fourth Ward, Virginia-Highland, and Reynoldstowns, among others – has gone quiet.

Sgt. John Chaffee with APD’s public affairs unit denied the walkouts in a statement, but said there had been a higher than usual number of call outs.

“Earlier suggestions that multiple officers from each zone had walked off the job were inaccurate. However, department is experiencing a higher than usual number of call outs with the incoming shift. We have enough resources to maintain operations and remain able to respond to incidents throughout the city,” Chaffee said.

A drive around Zone 6 indicated there was not the usual APD presence. A Georgia State Patrol unit was handling a two-car accident at Boulevard and Edgewood Avenue around 9 p.m. The APD’s precinct at Wellstar Atlanta Medical Center appeared empty. Down in Grant Park, the Zone 3 precinct was populated by Fulton County Sheriff units.

Vince Champion, southeast regional director of the International Brotherhood of Police officers, told Decaturish that police officers had stopped answering calls midshift, in response to charges against former Officer Garrett Rolfe, who is charged with the felony murder of Rayshard Brooks.

“The union, we would never advocate this. We wouldn’t advocate a blue flu,” Champion said. “We don’t know the numbers. Apparently we’re learning that command staff are asking outlying counties for support and aren’t getting it.”

The post Atlanta Police Department denies reports of massive officer walkout appeared first on Atlanta INtown Paper.

Former Atlanta police officer Garrett Rolfe has been charged with felony murder, aggravated assault and nine other charges in the shooting and killing of Rayshard Brooks, 27.

In explosive evidence revealed by Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard, it was revealed that Rolfe uttered “I got him” after shooting Brooks twice in the back and then kicked his prone body. The second officer involved, Devin Brosnan, then stood on Brooks’ shoulders as he fought for his life. It was more than two minutes before either officer attempted to give required medical aid to Brooks.

Brosnan has turned state’s witness and will testify against Rolfe in the case. However, after Howard’s press conference. Brosnan’s attorney, Don Samuel, told the AJC that “it’s absolutely untrue” that his client agreed to be a witness, denying that his client admitted guilt or did anything wrong.

Both men have been ordered to turn themselves in by 6 p.m. on June 18. Howard recommended a $50,000 bond for Brosnan, who has also been charged with aggravated assault, while no bail is recommended for Rolfe.

Howard said his office had reviewed officer body cameras, dashboard cameras, surveillance from the Wendy’s, and cell phone videos from witnesses. In addition, three witnesses inside a car, which was struck by one of the officer bullets, gave eyewitness statements.

Police were called to the Wendy’s at 125 University Ave. on the night of June 12 after a complaint was made that a man was asleep in his car and blocking the drive-thru window lane.

“Mr. Brooks was calm, cordial, and displayed a cooperative nature,” Howard said. “He was slightly impaired and his demeanor was almost jovial, but he followed the officers’ instructions.”

Howard said Brooks was never informed he was under arrest for DUI, which is required by the Atlanta Police Department procedures.

“Mr. Brooks never presented himself as a threat,” Howard said. “He was peacefully sleeping in his car until awakened by officer, then calmly moved his car when asked. He consented to a search and no weapons were found.”

Howard said the Taser that Brooks took from one of the officers and fired as he ran also posed no threat since it had been fired twice already.

“APD procedure prohibits firing a taser at a fleeing suspect,” Howard said. “If procedure  prohibits officers from firing a taser when someone is running away, certainly they can’t fire a handgun at someone who is running away.”

The post UPDATE: Police officer in Rayshard Brooks shooting charged with murder appeared first on Atlanta INtown Paper.

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Philanthropists Patty Quillin and Reed Hastings, chief executive of Netflix, have donated $120 million to Morehouse College, Spelman College, and the United Negro College Fund for scholarships. Each college and the UNCF will receive $40 million.

In a press release Morehouse said its share of the donation will go to its Student Success Program to establish a fund that will allow at least 200 students to graduate debt free. The history-making contribution is the largest gift to Morehouse College in the institution’s l53-year history and has contributed to a record year in which the college will raise more than $105 million.

Spelman also said in a statement posted to Facebook that the gift was the largest it had ever received for scholarship funding. Over the next 10 years, 200 first-year students will be able to attend Spelman with a full four-year scholarship thanks to the donation. 

“We’ve supported these three extraordinary institutions for the last few years because we believe that investing in the education of black youth is one of the best ways to invest in America’s future,” said Quillin and Hastings in a media statement. “Both of us had the privilege of a great education and we want to help more students—in particular students of color—get the same start in life. HBCUs have a tremendous record, yet are disadvantaged when it comes to giving. Generally, white capital flows to predominantly white institutions, perpetuating capital isolation. We hope this additional $120 million donation will help more black students follow their dreams and also encourage more people to support these institutions – helping to reverse generations of inequity in our country.”

The post Morehouse and Spelman colleges get $40 million each for scholarships from Netflix CEO, wife appeared first on Atlanta INtown Paper.

Atlanta’s battered hotel industry is entering the first stages of a gradual recovery, as some hotels reopen and others see a slow return of guests.

Read more at the AJC.com

Yesterday, House Resolution 935, carried by Sen. Brandon Beach (R – Alpharetta), passed the Senate by a vote of 51-0. This measure aims to promote statewide freight and logistics infrastructure by recreating the Georgia Commission on Freight and Logistics.

“In order to ensure Georgia remains a top state in which to do business, state and local leaders must work to promote a comprehensive freight and logistics plan for Georgia,” said Sen. Beach. “The Georgia Commission on Freight and Logistics has made significant progress over the past year throughout our meetings all across the state. By working with industry experts, the Commission has made progress towards determining how we can best leverage our existing freight and logistics infrastructure and ways we can expand freight and logistics investment in Georgia. There is still work to be done and recreating the Commission will allow Commission members the opportunity to further study this industry expansion. I appreciate the support of my colleagues in the General Assembly for prioritizing Georgia’s ever-evolving economy through this innovative measure.”

The Georgia Commission on Freight and Logistics was created in 2019 as a result of the passage of House Resolution 37. Sen. Beach currently serves as Co-Chair of the Commission, along with Rep. Kevin Tanner (R – Dawson).

 

Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health will embark on a new partnership with the state of Georgia in increasing its public health resources to combat the COVID-19 crisis.

The Emory COVID-19 Response Collaborative (ECRC), established within Rollins, will provide ongoing, flexible and collaborative support to the Georgia Department of Public Health (DPH) in four major areas:

• Planning coordination

• Outbreak response and evaluation

• Training and deployment of public health professionals throughout the state

• Surveillance, research and monitoring

“As Georgia continues to re-open commerce, travel and social engagement, ensuring that the citizens of Georgia are kept safe from disease and death is a public/private responsibility,” says Kathleen E. Toomey, MD, MPH, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Public Health. “To be successful, there must be ample and accessible COVID-19 testing, extraordinary community engagement and an ability to trace contacts of new COVID-19 cases in order to forestall resurgent outbreaks. Expanding academic partnerships among Georgia’s public health system, Rollins and other Georgia-based schools of public health will benefit us now and in the future.”

“Achieving adequate COVID-19 testing, community participation and contact tracing will require unprecedented investments in technologies, people power and communications campaigns,” says James W. Curran, MD, MPH, dean of the Rollins School of Public Health. “We are eager to support the state of Georgia in this comprehensive public health initiative to help ensure the health and safety of all Georgians.”

The ECRC will be led by Allison Chamberlain, PhD, current director of Rollins’ Center for Public Health Preparedness and Research (CPHPR), which has a nearly 20-year history of managing programs and research that focus on helping communities prepare for, respond to, and recover from infectious disease, terrorism and other public health threats. 

The ECRC’s four focus areas will include:

• Participating in state strategic and program planning and identifying areas for immediate focus for assistance from faculty, alumni and students. This effort will be led by Chamberlain.

• Identifying and supporting RSPH faculty, students and staff to work in the field alongside practice partners to investigate and stem COVID-19 outbreaks as they arise throughout Georgia.

• Preparing and placing public health professionals throughout Georgia through creation of the Rollins COVID-19 Epidemiology Fellows Program. Conceived as a way to accelerate the hiring of additional epidemiologists, the inaugural cohort will aim to place one fellow in each of Georgia’s 18 health districts, with additional fellows assigned at DPH, the ECRC or in districts with unique needs or larger populations.

• Identifying key areas where rapid implementation, evaluation and research are needed and provide support through projects or other sources of funding. This includes conducting the nation’s first randomized statewide COVID-19 survey, modeled after an NIH-approved national survey, of 1,200 households across Georgia to understand the prevalence of COVID-19. The study will be directed by RSPH faculty members Patrick Sullivan and Aaron Siegler, two of the nation’s most renowned HIV and survey researchers.

The ECRC will launch with support from a gift of $7.8 million from the Robert W. Woodruff Foundation.

“Our mission is to support activities that put the talented academic community at Rollins in the service of our public health partners during the COVID-19 crisis,” says Chamberlain. “We hope our work will help solidify and expand academic-public health partnerships among Georgia’s public health system, the RSPH and other Georgia-based schools of public health that will endure well beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.”