#Rayshard Brooks’ funeral is an ‘all too familiar moment’, says MLK’s daughter Bernice King

Rayshard Brooks — the black man who was shot and killed by police outside an Atlanta Wendy’s nearly two weeks ago — was remembered Tuesday as a hard-working, family man whose death “will not be in vain” during a tearful funeral service at the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church.

“We really should not be here today,” the Rev. Bernice A. King, the youngest daughter of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., told grievers — many dressed in all white and face masks reading “Black Lives Matter” — at the famed church in Atlanta where her father preached in 1960 until his assassination in 1968.

“This did not have to happen to Rayshard. There’s so many ways that Friday, June 12 could have ended, and a police killing did not have to be one of them,” King said as she spoke in the house of worship where Brooks’ gold casket stood near the center of the altar flanked by white floral arrangements.

King, addressing Brooks’ family and children, continued, “Although I did not have a chance to meet Rayshard, I am here to stand with you in what feels like an all too familiar moment, having a father killed when I was only 5 years of age.”

“I know the pain of growing up without a father and the ongoing attention around his tragic loss,” she said.

During King’s remarks, she noted that June 12 — the day Brooks was killed — was the same day when civil rights activist Medgar Evers was assassinated in 1963, as well as the same date Nelson Mandela was sentenced to life in prison in 1964.

“June 12 is now a constant reminder of a struggle for justice for black lives throughout the world,” King said, adding, “Rayshard Brooks’ life matters, and he should have been able to live and watch his kids grow up into adulthood.”

“And the officers should have gone home that night without blood on their hands,” King told the crowd, which included Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and Atlanta rapper T.I.

“This is the great tragedy in our nation that must cease,” she said.

Brooks — a 27-year-old husband and father of three daughters, ages 1, 2, and 8 as well as a 13-year-old stepson — when he was shot twice in the back while running away from white officers.

His cousin, Jymaco Brooks, who also spoke during the service, said, “This young man that everybody is talking about was uniquely different to us, his family members.”

“You couldn’t stay mad at him for five minutes because he would do something stupid to make you laugh,” said Jymaco, noting that Rayshard Brooks “often irritated” his wife Tomika Miller to the point that it was “almost comical.”

“All he wanted to do was smile, crack jokes, dance a little bit and live.”

Brooks’ former boss Ambrea Mikolajczyk who runs a construction company in Toledo, Ohio, where Brooks worked in 2019, told mourners that the young man “was an individual who made a lasting positive impact on us and our lives will be changed for the better having known him.”

“He was a rare once in a lifetime individual,” said Mikolajczyk, who recalled how Brooks would ride a bicycle to work and “was always the first to arrive.”

“Ray’s life will forever be a beacon of hope, change, love, resilience,” she said. “Through Ray’s death we will live in a world where we are no longer afraid of police.”

Rev. Raphael Warnock, a senior pastor at the church who presided over the service, called Brooks “the latest high-profile casualty in the struggle for justice.”

“He lost his life running from a system that too often makes slaves out of people,” Warnock said, as he called for those fighting for black rights nationwide to “keep on protesting,” and “keep marching, keep raising your voice, keep raising the issue.”

Brooks’ death occurred after cops were called to an area Wendy’s for a report of a man that was sleeping in his car in the drive-thru lane.

The interaction started out peacefully, but when Brooks failed a field sobriety test and was told he couldn’t get back into his car, he scuffled with police and took off running with an officer’s Taser.

The cop who shot Brooks, 27-year-old Garrett Rolfe, was fired and charged with murder.

Another officer, Devin Brosnan, 26, was placed on administrative duty and charged with aggravated assault in the shooting death.

Rolfe could face the death penalty if convicted.

Brooks’ death comes less than three weeks after the May 25 Minneapolis police custody death of George Floyd, which sparked mass protests over police brutality and systemic racism in US.