A year and a half later, one of the wishes for the family of Rayshard Brooks remains simple.
Turn the old Wendy’s, where Brooks was shot and killed by White, former Atlanta police officer Garrett Rolfe in June 2020, into a community peace center.
“It would not only turn something so negative and bad into a positive thing,” Brooks’ widow, Tomika Miller, said during a press conference, “[but] it will also give my children something better to look at instead of us standing outside of a gate putting balloons up.”
The family gathered at the site of the now-vacant parking lot on Jan. 31 to celebrate what would have been Brooks’ 29th birthday. The press conference and memorial had to be done on University Avenue’s narrow sidewalk, as the lot is locked up by a gate.
Miller and local activists like Justice for Georgia co-founder Brittany Jones-Chukura said they’ve met with former Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms’ team and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp’s aides to request the building of the center.
“The response has been ‘OK, we’re going to see what we can do about it,'” Jones-Chukura said. “And then nothing further.”
Miller said she hopes her public outcry on Brooks’ birthday can help expedite the process. She said she hasn’t reached out to the city’s 61st mayor Andre Dickens yet because he’s still in the first month of his term, but when she does, she hopes she can be an assistance to cut down on all the crime in the city.
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