Atlanta officer grazed by bullet while nabbing murder suspect

An Atlanta police officer was grazed by a bullet while trying to make an arrest Monday.

The officer wasn’t seriously injured but helped get a suspected killer off the streets, the police department said.

The officer believed the suspect was involved in a domestic violence incident, according to police. But Rakwon Brooks, 28, was also wanted on a murder charge out of DeKalb County, investigators quickly determined. He is accused of killing 19-year-old Quakari Freeman in July 2022 but had been on the run.

Now he’s facing charges in Fulton County, too.

On Monday afternoon, officers were called to a Troy Street home in northwest Atlanta, where a woman said her boyfriend of four months had slapped and punched her, according to police. Brooks had racked his gun at her, the woman told police, and she called 911 when he left.

“If you call the police on me, it’s going to be you and then the police,” Brooks told her, the woman said.

Officers located Brooks nearby and attempted to arrest him.

“While attempting to detain the suspect, the suspect physically resisted officers and reached to his waistband where there was a firearm,” police said in a news release. “When officers attempted to take the suspect to the ground, the suspect’s firearm discharged and grazed an officer’s lower leg. The suspect was taken into custody without further incident.”

Brooks told officers he did not intend to fire his green Glock pistol, which contained 14 rounds. Investigators believe the gun malfunctioned.

Earlier in January, Brooks allegedly held a gun to his girlfriend’s head, his arrest warrants state.

Brooks had been on the run from DeKalb authorities for more than three years. In December 2022, he was named the suspect in a deadly shooting from months earlier, according to police.

On July 1, 2022, officers said they were called to Avondale Townhomes along Holcombe Road and found Freeman dead in the parking lot from a gunshot wound. Brooks and the teenager were familiar with each other, but no details were released about a possible motive.