The Wendy’s at 125 University Ave. where Rayshard Brooks was shot by a former Atlanta police officer and then burned by arsonists during a night of unrest has been demolished. Without any notice, work crews and heavy equipment began knocking down the remains of the fast food restaurant on the morning of July 14.
A spokesperson for Wendy’s told the AJC that the demolition was “being done in a thoughtful way, with safety as the priority and in cooperation with city officials. There are no additional details to share at this time regarding this site.”
The demolition took place a week after protesters and a makeshift memorial to Brooks was cleared from the site following the murder of 8-year-old Secoriea Turner and a 53-year-old man near the Wendy’s over the Fourth of July holiday weekend.
Meanwhile, a second person of interest in the shooting death of Turner came forward after his surveillance images were released by the Atlanta Police Department.
Julian Conley, 19, is the man seen in a red t-shirt carrying a rifle in the surveillance images, but he maintains he had nothing to do with the shooting.
Conley admits he was at the intersection of University Avenue and Pryor Road at the time of the incident, but did not fire his gun. A group of armed men had erected an illegal barricade in the roadway, and when Turner’s parents tried to avoid it, at least two gunmen opened fire on their Jeep Cherokee striking the child in the back seat.
“At the end of the day, I had nothing to do with it,” Conley told WSB. “I feel terribly sorry about what happened to Secoriea Turner.”
Through his attorney, Conley said that the Jeep Cherokee struck one of the armed men and he’s the one who fired the shots. Conley doesn’t know who the man is.
Asked if Conley would speak to police investigators, his attorney, Jackie Patterson, said “We have nothing to say to the police. We just want the public to know that this man is innocent.”
