Tyler Perry Will Pay For Rayshard Brooks' Funeral
“His heart goes out to the family during this tragic time,” a source said about Tyler Perry
Amid the news about global protests against racism and police brutality, Atlanta police shot and killed a black man who was doing nothing more than sleeping in a Wendy’s parking lot. Rayshard Brooks died last week, and now, Tyler Perry has promised to pay for his funeral and for the educations of the four children he leaves behind.
A source told People magazine that Perry, who owns property in Atlanta, “spoke to Rayshard’s family and wanted to do something to help. His heart goes out to the family during this tragic time.”
Brooks was only 27 when he died. After police received a call about a man sleeping in his car in the Wendy’s drive-through, they attempted to arrest him. He resisted, and was tased, and then shot. He died later at a hospital after undergoing surgery. Brooks is survived by his wife, Tomika Miller, and their four children: Dream, 1, Memory, 2, Blessing, 8, and Mekai, 13.
After Brooks’ death, Atlanta police chief Erika Shields resigned, and the officer who shot Brooks, Garrett Rolfe, was fired. Still, it doesn’t feel like justice when Black people all over the U.S. are still being killed by police.
In addition to the help Perry has promised to give Brooks’ family, a GoFundMe page was launched by the family’s attorneys, Stewart Trial Attorneys’ Care Team. All money raised there will go directly to the family.
“I thought this was finally going to start ending,” the Brooks family attorney, L. Chris Stewart, told People. “I’ve been doing this for 15 years, I don’t know what justice is anymore. Is it getting them arrested? Is it getting somebody fired? Is it a chief stepping down? I know that this isn’t justice, what’s happening in society right now. We’re just tired.
Perry isn’t the first celebrity to step up in the wake of the recent deaths of Brooks, George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and others. Kanye West recently said he would pay for a college education for Gianna, George Floyd’s 6-year-old daughter, along with making a $2 million pledge to help the families of Arbery and Taylor. And just this week, Beyoncé used her huge platform to publish an open letter to the Kentucky Attorney General, calling for real, actual justice for Taylor, in the form of arrests and charges against the officers who killed her.
