Three days after a Democratic primary catapulted Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard, the county’s first Black DA, into a runoff with challenger Fani Willis, who is seeking to be the county’s first Black woman DA, Rayshard Brooks was shot to death by an Atlanta police officer. 

Within days, Howard secured arrest warrants for two police officers, charging them with multiple felonies, including a charge of felony murder against the officer who fired the fatal shots and announced the charges at a nationally televised news conference.