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A screen grab from body camera video provided by Atlanta police shows Rayshard Brooks (right) speaking with Garrett Rolfe last June in the parking lot of a Wendy’s restaurant in Atlanta.

Atlanta Police Department /Via AP

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Atlanta Police Department /Via AP

A screen grab from body camera video provided by Atlanta police shows Rayshard Brooks (right) speaking with Garrett Rolfe last June in the parking lot of a Wendy’s restaurant in Atlanta.

Atlanta Police Department /Via AP

An Atlanta oversight board has ordered the reinstatement of Garrett Rolfe, the fired police officer charged with murder in the death of Rayshard Brooks, based on technicalities about dismissal procedures under the Atlanta city code.

Rolfe will remain on administrative leave until his criminal charges are resolved, the Atlanta Police Department said in a statement to NPR.

The department filed paperwork to dismiss Rolfe the day after he shot Brooks, a 27-year-old Black man, in the parking lot of a Wendy’s on June 12. Rolfe has since been charged with murder, though his criminal case has been bogged down by procedural delays.

The order to reinstate him, made by the city’s Civil Service Board, is based on the finding that Atlanta police did not follow city code when it dismissed him. The board found the department made several errors on the dismissal paperwork and did not give Rolfe adequate time to respond.

The board specifically did not make a judgment about whether Rolfe’s conduct was criminal.

“It is important to note that the CSB did not make a determination as to whether officer Rolfe violated Atlanta Police Department policies. In light of the CSB’s rulings, APD will conduct an assessment to determine if additional investigative actions are needed,” department spokesperson Anthony Grant told NPR.

On the night of June 12, Rolfe and another officer were called to the Wendy’s because Brooks had fallen asleep in his car in the drive-through lane, according to authorities. The officers arrived and questioned Brooks, and conducted field sobriety tests for about 30 minutes, police body camera footage shows. They then moved to handcuff him, saying he’d had too much to drink to be driving.

Brooks resisted arrest. In the scuffle, he grabbed an officer’s Taser, then ran away. Rolfe chased him with his own Taser drawn. Still running, Brooks tried to fire the Taser back toward Rolfe. Rolfe then drew his handgun and fired three shots, two of them striking Brooks.

The officers, including Rolfe, did not immediately provide medical assistance. Brooks died soon after at a hospital.

Rolfe’s dismissal was announced that weekend.

His firing came at a chaotic time for the Atlanta Police Department. Less than two weeks previously, two other officers were fired for Tasering two Black college students during a traffic stop. (Those officers have also been reinstated.) The chief, Erika Shields, resigned June 13, the same day the department filed paperwork to fire Rolfe.

During a board hearing last month over whether Rolfe’s firing should be reversed, witness testimony and evidence showed an error-ridden, rushed dismissal.

Atlanta city code requires that the subject of disciplinary action have an opportunity to respond before the action, in this case Rolfe’s dismissal, takes effect. That response period can be shortened in the case of emergency.

But the board ruled that the city did not provide Rolfe that chance to defend himself, instead delivering the notice of his dismissal at a meeting neither he nor police supervisors could attend.

Additionally, officials made several mistakes on the disciplinary paperwork, including checking both “yes” and “no” boxes on one form under the section indicating whether the dismissal was an “emergency action.”

“This was very rushed. Time was of the essence. Sometimes mistakes happen when you rush,” Sgt. William Dean, an investigator with APD’s internal affairs unit, testified at the hearing.

The hearing did not address whether any of Rolfe’s actions that night were criminal. Rolfe, making his first public statement since killing Brooks, refused to answer any questions related to June 12, citing the Fifth Amendment.

Two witnesses from APD, Dean and Assistant Chief Todd Coyt, testified that they believed that Rolfe and his partner had acted appropriately during the encounter with Brooks.

The conditions of Rolfe’s bond ban him from possessing firearms and prevent him from having contact with any APD officers except in case of emergencies, according to court documents.

Rolfe will receive back pay, according to Atlanta city ordinance. It was not immediately clear whether his administrative leave would be paid or unpaid. Inquiries to Rolfe’s counsel and APD were not immediately answered.