Almost two weeks after his untimely death, Rayshard Brooks was laid to rest in his Atlanta hometown on Tuesday.
The funeral services which was paid for by movie mogul Tyler Perry were held at Atlanta’s historic Ebenezer Baptist Church where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. served as co-pastor.
Mourners, many of them wearing white, gathered in the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church to pay their last respect to a man who was one of the victims of racism and police brutality.
Bernice King, the youngest child of civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr., told mourners she did not know Rayshard Brooks or his family, but she knew their pain.
“I am here to stand with you in what feels like all-too-familiar moment: having a father killed when I was only 5 years of age. My heart deeply grieves,” she said. “I know the pain of growing up without a father and the ongoing attention around his tragic loss.”
Bernice King, who is a pastor, named all four of Brooks’ children and said he should still be alive to watch them grow to adulthood.
“We really should not be here today,” King said. “This did not have to happen to Rayshard.”
Atlanta born rapper T.I. also attended the funeral.
On Friday 12 June, Rayshard Brooks a 27-year-old black man was fatally shot and killed in front of Wendy fast food restaurant by an Atlanta police officer identified as Garrett Rolfe.
Brooks’ was killed just three days after George Floyd was buried.
Brooks’ death followed that of several other African Americans killed by police officers or white vigilantes in recent weeks, sparking waves of protests across the country against police brutality and racial inequality.
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