Atlanta Cop Who Killed Rayshard Brooks Charged With Felony Murder

Officer Garrett Rolfe shot and killed 27-year-old Brooks on June 12 in a Wendy’s parking lot before uttering the words, “I got him,” the local district attorney said. If convicted, he faces life in prison without parole or the death penalty.

Former Atlanta Police Officer Garrett Rolfe has been charged with felony murder and several counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in the killing of 27-year-old father Rayshard Brooks. Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard announced the charges at a Wednesday press conference in Atlanta.

Rolfe, a white officer, shot and killed Brooks on June 12 in a Wendy’s parking lot and was fired after footage of the incident gained national attention. Officer Devin Brosnan, who first responded to a call that Brooks was asleep in his car while parked in the drive-thru, was placed on administrative duty. He has also been charged with aggravated assault.

Prosecutors reviewed eight videos of the encounter, including footage from two police body cameras, two police car dash cameras, a Wendy’s surveillance camera, and three cell phone videos from witnesses. Howard confirmed on Wednesday that Brooks was running away when Rolfe shot him, and that Rolfe then said, “I got him.”

Rolfe faces 11 charges, including felony murder, felony aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, and violation of oath of office. If convicted of felony murder, Rolfe faces life in prison without parole or the death penalty. Several of Rolfe’s aggravated assault charges are also related to him firing at another car at the scene with at least three people inside.

Howard described Brooks as being calm and cordial during the June 12 encounter, and that even though he was “slightly impaired,” Brooks’ “demeanor was almost jovial.” Howard added that Brooks was never informed he was under arrest for driving under the influence, did not present himself as a threat, did not have a weapon, and that “for 41 minutes he followed every instruction, answered the questions.”

Howard said that Brooks did not get medical attention for more than two minutes. While Brooks was on the ground, video showed that Rolfe kicked Brooks, and Brosnan stood on his shoulders, Howard said. Brosnan also later admitted to standing on Brooks’ shoulders while he was on the ground, and Brosnan will make a “statement of culpability of Officer Rolfe” as a witness for the state, Howard said.

Both officers have been asked to turn themselves in, but Brosnan will be granted a $50,000 bond given his cooperation. Prosecutors recommended Rolfe be held without bond.

The incident began when Brosnan received a call about Brooks sleeping in his parked car. When Brosnan arrived, he asked Brooks to move his car before requesting another officer, according to the Georgia Bureau Of Investigation (GBI). Rolfe then arrived on the scene, questioned Brooks, and gave him a sobriety test.

According to the GBI, Brooks failed the sobriety test. Footage then showed Rolfe beginning to handcuff Brooks before he had a “physical struggle” with the officers.

Brooks then took a Taser from Brosnan, the GBI said, adding that Brooks began to flee. When the officers chased him, Brooks turned and pointed the Taser toward Rolfe.

While the GBI said Rolfe fired shots after Brooks pointed the Taser toward him, the local county medical examiner ruled Brooks’ death a homicide on Monday, citing two gunshot wounds on his back. Additionally, Howard said Wednesday that Brooks fired the Taser twice, which renders the Taser unusable, and Rolfe knew that the Taser was no longer a threat.

“Howard said the charges against Brosnan and Rolfe mark the county’s 40th prosecution of officers for misconduct, and the ninth prosecution for homicide by an officer, including eight which “involved black males, and one was a black female.”

After Brooks’ was killed, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms announced Atlanta Police Chief Erika Shields’ resignation. In response to Rolfe’s actions, Bottoms also said, “I do not believe that this was a justified use of deadly force.”

The night following Brooks’ killing, protesters took to the streets in Atlanta, peacefully blocking highways and building a makeshift memorial to Brooks at the Wendy’s where he was killed. Also on the night of June 13, two suspected arsonists set fire to the fast food restaurant, and authorities are still looking to identify them. Some demonstrators took video footage of the incident, and police reportedly believe the suspects are both women.

The weekend’s protests were part of ongoing demonstrations in Atlanta and cities across the country, as protesters demand an end to police brutality in the wake of the death of George Floyd.

What Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) Must Do To Avoid Poor Service Delivery On Its Website

The Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) is established by S (1) of the Company and Allied Matters Act, 1990. As provided in S. 7 (1), the Commission shall subject to section 541 of the Act, administer the Act including the regulation and supervision of the formation, incorporation, registration, management, and winding-up of companies under or pursuant to the Act.

From the foregoing, it is clear that the CAC is responsible for the registration of companies (body or business entities) as can be found in Part A, B, and C of the Act. The processes for the registration of companies are expressly stated in the Act. However, e-registration of company can be done on the commission’s website at http://www.cac.gov.ng. This piece aims at addressing the hitches that have been so far observed with the online registration procedure on the commission’s website.

Sometimes in April, 2017, the Registrar-General of the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), Mr Mahmud Bello, informed the general public that the Commission has started operating 24 hours company registration process to make startup of business easier in Nigeria. This was made known at the CAC Customers’ Forum in Kano, which was organized in collaboration with the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC). The announcement was made following the introduction of an online portal on the CAC website with the aim of easing online registration of companies.

The introduction was to bring to an end the gradual reign of manual registration procedure. Since the upgrade, online friendly customers have been visiting the CAC website to transact business, but the experiences thus far have not been quite encouraging. Just last week, it was reported that the CAC Registration portal crashed seven times within three months. Visitors to the CAC cyberspace found it difficult transacting with the Commission as the e-means of communicating such transactions was on a total shutdown. Also, there have been complaints about the online customer care relationship of the Commission. Reports have it that the numbers that are made available on the website are not reachable. This needs to be addressed.

Without gainsaying, the Commission must understand that in so far as the registration of companies in Nigerian is concerned, it is second to none. It is the beginning and the end, which means that the services of the Commission cannot be dispensed with. Therefore, the Commission is suppose to be up and doing, giving services with the highest level of professionalism. The whole world is going global. Commercial activities are not left out. Gone are those days when manual means of payment are heavily relied on.

Today, there are various means of online payment all over the world. Due to the demand on the CAC concerning company registration, the online procedure is surely the best way of meeting up the demands of the public, especially, with the ever emerging ICT equipped and enlightened populace. CAC is therefore expected to flow with the tide.

The seven-time crashing of the CAC portal in a space of three months is not unassociated with the weight or capacity of the CAC website. Where the number of visitors to the website is more than the capacity of the website at a time, the website will definitely crash. This means that the CAC needs to upgrade to a better and stronger website with a better and stronger capacity.

The CAC must as a matter of urgency employ the services of a capable hosting company that will host their website. An experienced firm is needed to improve the strength of the website so that it can accommodate many visitors at a time. Also, the Commission needs to provide functioning phone numbers so that visitors can be able to access the customer care representatives anytime they need to be accessed. Functioning phone numbers is not just enough, but these numbers must be available on working hours. Customers must be able to reach these numbers when they need to.

Furthermore, it is also suggested that the numbers be made toll free so that customers can be able to freely lay their complaints and make possible enquiries. Moreso, the Commission should provide a chat label on the website where customers can communicate with customer care representatives who will be available to respond to urgent enquiries.

The world is changing, and if we must meet up with the trend, then we must as a matter of fact adjust to the current reality facing us. It doesn’t speak well on an organization like the CAC to be recording cases of crash on its website, seven times within a space of three months. The CAC must do the needful to address these issues and prove to the world that it is a Commission conversant with the global best practices in service delivery.

Obaseki Perfects Defection Plans as APC Crisis Worsen

Edo gov holds meetings with PDP colleagues, Secondus

Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, was busy Wednesday putting finishing touches to his plans to pursue his re-election bid on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), This Day report

Obaseki, who resigned his membership from the All Progressives Congress (APC) on Tuesday, hours before the Court of Appeal affirmed the suspension of the party’s National Chairman, Mr. Adams Oshiomhole, held a series of meetings with his PDP colleagues and the party’s National Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus.

APC leaders were also busy trying to subdue the raging crisis in the party in the aftermath of Oshiomhole’s suspension as the party’s Deputy National Secretary, Chief Victor Giadom, laid claims to the leadership of the party.

Giadom, who was later suspended, broke ranks with some members of the National Working Committee (NWC), who had late Tuesday picked one of Oshiomhole’s zonal deputies, Senator Abiola Ajimobi, to hold the fort for the embattled chairman.

Giadom anchored his claim to the party’s chairmanship on a March order of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court.

THISDAY gathered that the PDP governors held a virtual conference with their Edo State counterpart ahead of his joining the party any time from now.

THISDAY gathered that the virtual conference Obaseki had with his PDP colleagues was chaired by the Chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum, who is also the Governor of Sokoto State, Hon. Aminu Tambuwal.

According to sources privy to the meeting, the PDP governors assured Obaseki of soft landing and also addressed his fears.
It was also learnt that the PDP NWC met outside the national secretariat of the party in Abuja to discuss some of the issues regarding waivers to the Edo State governor and how to smoothen his admittance into the party.

The source said the PDP NWC might inform the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of a new date for its governorship primary, which must fall within the June 27 deadline approved by the commission for political parties to choose their governorship candidates.

The source said: “According to plans, a waiver will form part of the agenda of the NWC meeting and it is when all these are concluded that Obaseki will join the party.”

But before he met with the governors of the main opposition party, there were moves to make Obaseki to reverse his resignation of his membership of the APC.

It was learnt that some party leaders pressured him to reconsider his decision in view of the fact that Oshiomhole who allegedly masterminded his disqualification from the race for the APC governorship ticket was out of the way.

The moves to prevail on Obaseki to reverse his resignation from APC, it was gathered, was part of the reason Giadom announced himself as acting national chairman and cancelled the APC screening that disqualified Obaseki from contesting the APC governorship primary.

THISDAY gathered that this was part of the reasons the Edo governor and his deputy, Philip Shaibu, were yet to disclose their new party.

But the National Vice Chairman of the PDP in the South-south, Mr. Emma Ogidi, in his interview with ARISE NEWS Channel, a sister broadcast arm of THISDAY yesterday, still expressed optimism that Obaseki would join the party within the week.

He was, however, not categorical that Obaseki will be given an automatic ticket as he kept saying that due process would be followed because PDP is a party of due process.

As at press time, Obaseki was still meeting with the Secondus in Abuja.

I may leave APC like Obaseki, yet to decide ― Edo Speaker

The expected defections among political office holders with Edo Governor, Godwin Obaseki suffered a setback as the speaker of the State House of Assembly, Hon Francis Okiye said he was yet to decide his next move whether to leave the All Progressives Congress (APC) like Obaseki or remain.
Meanwhile, the leader of Ovia South West local government area, Hon Robert Ekeme Fiyes and his deputy Godwin Ekhator were removed with three councillors out of ten for allegedly not supporting Obaseki.

Speaking to journalists to mark his one year anniversary as Edo Speaker, Okiye, however, said Obaseki can remain governor of the state without belonging to any political party.

He said the Governor is yet to formally inform him of his resignation from the APC but that he has not considered resigning from the ruling party.

The Edo speaker said, “I know that our electoral law does allow for independent candidacy so that the governor without a party in a state can sponsor himself in an election within the manifesto of his electoral campaign, he can administer the state.

“To the best of my knowledge, a governor without a party has not committed an offence that we would begin to raise questions within the polity.

“He enjoys the constitutional rights to resign from one party to join another. It is not in contradiction to the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

“Members of the Assembly are not running a joint ticket with the governor and within the constitutional allowance, you know that the governor has the right to move from one party to another.

“In this circumstance, I can speak for myself that as a Speaker, I have not been formally communicated that the governor has moved from the party (APC). So, the issue about who is going with the governor or not is not being discussed.”

He said in the last one year, “12 bills were received adding that two were passed into law while four are at different stages and four assented to”

The removal of the legislative leaders was allegedly carried out in the private residence of a very influential chieftain of the party who is still in the Obaseki administration.

But a councillor who does not want his name mentioned said “We are not aware of any impeachment, our signatures were forged into a document and three of our members went to the house of a leader of APC who is not even from our local government but in government and purportedly removed the leader and his deputy.

“The allegation is that we are not loyal to the chairman who is supporting Governor Obaseki”

But when contacted, the chairman of the council, Hon Destiny Enaulele denied allegation of such development.