Second victim in Rayshard Brooks shooting recalls terrifying ordeal

Yahoo Entertainment
Updated ·3 min read

A second victim has emerged from the police shooting death of Rayshard Brooks. Melvin Evans appeared on Wednesday’s Cuomo Prime Time, where he discussed what he witnessed the from only a few feet away.

Evans and a friend pulled into the Wendy’s where the shooting occurred as a struggle broke out between police officer Garrett Rolfe and Brooks.

Brooks was found sleeping in his car at a Wendy’s drive-thru, and after what was at first a very cordial interaction, an altercation broke out between him and two officers when one of them tried to arrest him after a failed sobriety test. During the altercation, Brooks got possession of one of the officer’s tasers, and appeared to shoot the taser in the direction of one of the officers as he ran away.

The ordeal ended with Brooks being shot twice in the back as he tried to escape custody. Rolfe has since been fired and charged with felony murder.

One of the more heavily debated topics in this matter centers around whether Brooks shot at Rolfe with the taser as he fled. Evans recalled Brooks having possession of a taser and attempted to provide clarity on whether it was fired at the officers.

“[Brooks] pointed the taser in the air and I don't think he shot it — I think he was doing — he shot it to get the officer off of him,” Evans said. “He didn't point it toward him, he just was running away from the officer.”

Evans’s truck was hit by one of Rolfe’s bullets, but he was not injured. In the wake of George Floyd and other Black victims of police brutality, he was understandably scared in the moment and unsure how to safely flee the danger.

“I'm not going to pull out while [Rolfe] got this gun in his hand because if I move, he's right ten feet from the truck,” recalled Evans. “I might run over them or something being nervous or trying to get from the scene or [he’ll] shoot at the truck.”

Evans ducked down in his truck until he saw Rolfe holster his gun, at which point he left. As for the accusations that Rolfe kicked and stepped on Brooks after the shooting, Evans said, “I didn’t [see], that probably happened after we left.”

Cuomo Prime Time airs weeknights at 9 p.m. on CNN.

Watch as Trump says Rayshard Brooks’s killing is ‘very sad’ but you 'can’t resist a police officer’:

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