Tyler Perry to pay for Rayshard Brooks’ funeral after he was shot twice in back by Atlanta police

Mogul Tyler Perry will be paying for Rayshard Brooks’ funeral after he was fatally shot by police in Atlanta, Georgia over the weekend.

The 50-year-old producer spoke to Brooks’ family about taking care of the observance financially attorney L. Chris Stewart announced at a press conference on Monday. 

The death of 27-year-old Brooks, which the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s office ruled a homicide, was the latest police killing of a black man to fuel nationwide outrage against police brutality and racial injustice. 

Stewart said: ‘We do want to acknowledge and thank Tyler Perry, who we spoke with and who will be taking care of the funeral for the family.

‘It’s support like that and it’s people who are actually in this community, that love the community, that want healing, and [want] families like this to never have to go through something like this. It’s a step forward.

‘We want to thank him for such a generous move.’

Brooks’ fatal encounter with the police came after police responded to a call that he had fallen asleep in his car in a Wendy’s restaurant drive-through lane.

Caught on video, the encounter seemed friendly at first but when an officer moved to arrest him, Brooks struggled with him and another officer at the scene before breaking away across the parking lot with what appears to be a police Taser in his hand.

A video from the restaurant’s cameras shows Brooks turning as he runs and possibly aiming the Taser at the pursuing officers, both white, before one of them fires his gun and Brooks falls.

Atlanta’s police chief, Erika Shields, resigned over the shooting. The officer suspected of killing Brooks was fired, and the other officer involved in the incident was put on administrative leave.

Prosecutors will decide by midweek whether to bring charges, Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard said on Sunday.

Several members of Rayshard Brooks’ family attended Monday’s news conference in tears and spoke of him as a warm family man who loved to take his daughter skating. One man left the room during the briefing in hysterics, shouting, ‘Somebody took my cousin!’

Brooks’ death reignited protests in Atlanta after days of worldwide demonstrations against racism and police brutality prompted by the death of George Floyd, an African American, when a Minneapolis policeman knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes on May 25.

Brooks’ widow, Tomika Miller, implored the public to protest peacefully in her husband’s name.

‘We want to keep his name positive,’ she said.

Kim Kardashian, Billie Eilish, and Justin Timberlake were among celebrities using their social media platforms to bring attention to the death of Brooks over the weekend.