By Ray King

Jefferson County Sheriff Lafayette Woods Jr., on Tuesday offered a different perspective to the shooting death by police of a man in Atlanta last week, to the death of George Floyd at police hands in Minneapolis and the nationwide protests that have followed those deaths.

Woods appeared on the Oldies 101.3 morning show and said in the case of the death in Atlanta, there were a lot of variables involved, particularly the use of force by one of the officers.

“When you look at it from the outside in it’s different because you don’t see all the variables, all the video, you were not there so it’s hard to cast doubt on the outset without having all the facts, all the video,” Woods said.

He went on to say that from the video he had seen, “there are some issues with the actual shooting itself.”

Woods said he had heard rumors that Rashad Brooks, the man who was killed, had a gun but based on video, Brooks had been searched by the officers.

“At that point, the notion goes out the door that he had a gun,” Woods said.

He also said the death of Brooks could not compare to the death of George Floyd.

Recalling history, Woods talked about the beating of Rodney King in Los Angeles, a beating that resulted in race riots and multiple deaths and compared it to the death of Floyd and it’s aftermath.

Listen to Sheriff Lafayette Woods Jr’s full interview in the audio player below: