After some Atlanta police officers call out, mayor asks them to honor commitment to community

Atlanta (CNN)Hours after a fired police officer was charged with felony murder for fatally shooting a man in the back, Atlanta police officers are not responding to calls in three of the department’s six zones, multiple sources within the Atlanta Police Department told CNN on Wednesday evening.

Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard earlier in the day announced 11 charges against Garrett Rolfe, who was fired after he shot Rayshard Brooks twice in the back on Friday night. A third shot hit a car with three people inside.

The police department said an unusual number of officers working the late shift had called out sick. The mayor said the city would be OK.

“There’s a lot happening in our cities and our police officers are receiving the brunt of it, quite frankly,” Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms told CNN’s Chris Cuomo. She said the city has committed to the officers through a big pay raise, and “we expect that our officers will keep their commitment to our communities.”

She said she thinks morale is down tenfold.

“We do have enough officers to cover us through the night,” she said. “Our streets won’t be any less safe because of the number of officers who called out.”

The mayor didn’t say how many officers had called out.

In its statement, the Atlanta Police Department said reports that multiple officers from each zone had walked off the job were inaccurate.

“The department is experiencing a higher than usual number of call outs with the incoming shift. We have enough resources to maintain operations & remain able to respond to incidents,” the statement said.

Atlanta police patrol six zones covering some 500,000 residents. They also patrol Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.

The 11 charges Rolfe faces are felony murder, five counts of aggravated assault, four counts of violation of oath of office and one count of criminal damage to property.

Devin Brosnan, the other officer at the shooting, faces an aggravated assault charge for standing on Brooks in the parking lot. He also faces two counts of violation of oath of office.

Attorneys for both officers have said they are not guilty.

CNN’s Erica Henry contributed to this report.

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