US: Family and friends bid farewell to Rayshard Brooks

Scores of mourners, some dressed all in white and others wearing Black Lives Matter shirts, filed into the historic Atlanta church to pay their tribute to Rayshard Brooks.

The church was once the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s pulpit.

Brooks was killed by police in a Wendy's parking lot that stoked protests across the U.S. against racial injustice.

Martin Luther King Jr.'s daughter, the Rev. Bernice King, also delivered remarks at the private service, along with a friend of Brooks, his mother-in-law and the senior pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church, the Rev. Raphael Warnock.

"And what's especially troubling about this killing of an unarmed man is that this time it hit our home base. This happened in Atlanta, the city that is supposed to be too busy to hate. The city that is the home to civil and human rights. This happened in the city that has been known as the Black Mecca," King said.

Brooks' widow, Tomika Miller, dressed in white, sat surrounded by family and friends.

Former state lawmaker Stacey Abrams and Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, both of whom have been mentioned as potential running mates for Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, were among the mourners.

Most dressed all in white, while some wore T-shirts with Brooks' picture.

Nearly everyone wore masks against the coronavirus.

Brooks' killing June 12 came amid weeks of turbulent and sometimes violent protests across the U.S. over Floyd's death under a white Minneapolis police officer's knee on May 25.

Brooks, 27, was shot by Officer Garrett Rolfe after a struggle that erupted when police tried to handcuff him for being intoxicated behind the wheel of his car at a Wendy's drive-thru.

Video showed Brooks snatching a police Taser and firing it at the white officer while running away.

(Representative Image)