ATLANTA, GA — Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms announced Saturday that Police Chief Erika Shields has resigned as calls for her firing built following a police-involved shooting at a fast-food restaurant.
“I do not believe this was a justified use of deadly force and have called for the immediate termination of the officer,” the mayor said, at a news conference just after 5 p.m.
“What has become abundantly clear over the couple of weeks in Atlanta is that while we have a police force full of men and women who work alongside our communities with honor, respect and dignity, there has been a disconnect with what our expectations are and should be as it relates to interactions with our officers and the communities they are entrusted to protect,” Bottoms said Saturday.
Because of her desire that Atlanta be a model of what meaningful reform should look like across this country, Chief Shields has offered to immediately step aside as police chief so that the city may move forward with urgency in rebuilding the trust so desperately needed throughout our communities,” Bottoms said.
In a statement, the Georgia NAACP said the Atlanta Police Department has “a history of antagonizing our Black communities,” and the city “must address this not only with their words but also with their actions and budgetary decisions.”
The Atlanta Police Department continues to terrorize protestors and murder unarmed Black bodies,” the statement reads.
