DE-ESCALATE

Ryon Horne’s newest documentary for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution,

“DE-ESCALATE!,” tells the story of an intense protest that happened after Rayshard Brooks was killed by an Atlanta police officer in June 2020. Hundreds of protesters, who’d gathered at the restaurant site, shut down the nearby Downtown Connector, one of the busiest interstates in Atlanta. Four Georgia State troopers arrived and had to figure out how to safely clear the road. What followed was a night of intense confrontations between demonstrators and police – and between troopers. “DE-ESCALATE!” was created with footage from Ryon Horne and photographs, along with interviews and documents obtained through the Georgia Open Records Act.