Duo Plead Guilty to Burning Down Atlanta Wendy’s During BLM Riot
Joseph Mackinnon, The Blaze, December 4, 2023
Two of the three individuals accused of burning a Wendy’s to the ground during the 2020 BLM riots have pleaded guilty. For reducing the business to ash and rubble, Chisom Kingston and the woman whom Rayshard Brooks indicated was his “girlfriend,” Natalie Hanna White, will have to pay a $500 fine and complete 150 hours of community service.
Two BLM rioters were convicted for setting an Atlanta Wendy's on fire at a BLM riot in 2020. As I wrote in my book, the Wendy's area was transformed into an autonomous zone & a child was shot dead. The two were sentenced to a $500 fine & community service.https://t.co/5Sqpjnv5X0
— Andy Ngô 🏳️🌈 (@MrAndyNgo) December 4, 2023
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On June 12, Atlanta police attempted to arrest 27-year-old Rayshard Brooks at a Wendy’s drive-thru in Atlanta after he blew over the legal limit on a Breathalyzer test. However, Brooks struck APD officer Devan Brosnan, grabbed the officer’s taser, and attempted to flee. When APD officer Garrett Rolfe gave chase, Brooks took aim at Rolfe with the stolen taser and fired, ultimately prompting a defensive and definitive response from Rolfe.
The officers were initially slapped with a litany of charges by former Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard. However, a Georgia special prosecutor ultimately found in August 2022 that both officers “acted as reasonable officers would under the facts and circumstances of the events of that night.”
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Rioters mobbed the Wendy’s on University Avenue in southwest Atlanta and shutdown a nearby interstate the evening of June 13. In addition to torching cars in the area and clashing with police, rioters set the restaurant ablaze.
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Ahead of their trial this week, Kingston and White entered negotiated guilty pleas, according to Fulton County court documents.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that they both pleaded guilty to the aforementioned charges and each received five years on probation and $500 fines.
John Wesley Wade, who has been held in federal prison, is set to go to trial Tuesday over the Wendy’s arson.
While Wade faces the same charges as Brooks’ apparent girlfriend and Kingston, he previously pleaded guilty to federal arson charges, having torched five postal trucks in Atlanta after the Wendy’s went up in smoke.
