Inheritance by Fire
When Pete Skandalakis stepped into the Rayshard Brooks case in 2020, he did not inherit a neutral file. He inherited a fire.
The summer had already scorched Atlanta: Brooks, a 27-year-old Black man, was shot in the parking lot of a Wendy’s after a DUI stop escalated into a struggle. Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard, facing reelection, charged officer Garrett Rolfe with felony murder and officer Devin Brosnan with aggravated assault. The charges were sweeping, the city was raw, and the case became a symbol of the national reckoning over policing.