Garrett Rolfe, the Atlanta police officer who shot and killed Rayshard Brooks in 2020, is due in a Fulton County courtroom Monday morning to stand trial over a bar fight that broke out at a Midtown nightspot more than a year ago. He faces charges of simple battery and criminal trespass tied to an early-morning altercation at X Midtown in June 2025, a case that has nothing to do with the Brooks shooting, which occurred six years ago.
The trial is set to begin at 9 a.m. Monday, according to Atlanta News First, which plans to stream the proceedings live. The station reports that Rolfe is charged with simple battery and criminal trespass, and it stresses that the bar-fight trial is unrelated to the 2020 shooting.
What Happened at X Midtown
According to the Atlanta Police Department, officers responded to X Midtown at 990 Piedmont Avenue NE at approximately 1:28 a.m. on June 29, 2025. Rolfe was off duty at the time, the department said in its release on the incident.
Per Rolfe's arrest warrant, as described by the same Atlanta News First report, his friend allegedly took a photo of the bartender and claimed she had overcharged him. The bartender's friend asked Rolfe's companion to delete the photo, and then asked 52-year-old Raefeael Penrice to escort the two men out of the bar.
Conflicting Accounts of Who Threw the First Punch
What happened next is disputed. Witnesses told police that Rolfe and his friend became aggressive with the bartender's friend, and according to people interviewed by investigators, Rolfe and his friend started hitting Penrice. Rolfe, however, told officers that Penrice struck him first and that he acted in self-defense, the station's report states.
Penrice was arrested and charged with battery and simple battery at the scene, per the Atlanta Police Department's account. The department said it later developed probable cause to charge Rolfe as well, after investigators reviewed the dispute; Atlanta News First reported that Rolfe was charged with battery about a month after the incident. Rolfe was placed on paid administrative leave the day of the fight, pending an investigation by the department's Office of Professional Standards, according to the agency's release.
Scrutiny of How APD Polices Its Own
The fallout from the bar fight has reopened broader questions about how the Atlanta Police Department disciplines its own officers. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that the incident has led to questions about the department's ability to police itself, and that the National Police Accountability Project held a press conference before a recent City Council meeting calling for Rolfe's termination. Multiple speakers were critical of APD's disciplinary practices during the public comment portion of that meeting, the paper noted.
Rolfe was booked into the Fulton County Jail on July 30 on simple battery charges and released the same day, according to FOX 5 Atlanta, which also reported that the verbal argument between Rolfe and Penrice escalated into a physical dispute after the pair exchanged words.
The Shadow of the Rayshard Brooks Case
Rolfe's name remains inseparable from the 2020 shooting of Rayshard Brooks, a case that drew intense national attention amid a reckoning over police use of force. Special prosecutor Pete Skandalakis later found that Rolfe's use of force in that shooting was justified, Atlanta News First reported. That finding does not bear on Monday's trial, which centers solely on the simple battery and criminal trespass charges stemming from the bar fight.
