Rayshard Brooks girlfriend remains in jail after having her bond set at $10,000 on Wednesday on suspicion of setting fire to the Wendy’s where he was shot dead by cops on June 12.
Natalie White, 29, was taken into custody in Atlanta, Georgia, on Tuesday afternoon after handing herself into the authorities.
Police issued an arrest warrant for her on June 20 and shared surveillance footage of her inside a store.
They claim she is partly to blame for setting fire to the fast food restaurant on June 13 where Brooks was shot dead by Officer Garrett Rolfe after falling asleep at the wheel of his car in the drive-thru lane a day earlier.
Brooks was married but on the night of his death, while talking to police, he told them he was at Wendy’s to pick up food for him and his ‘girlfriend’, ‘Natalie White’.
White’s attorney Drew Findling confirmed to DailyMail.com on Tuesday that they were ‘very close’ but declined to share more details of their relationship out of respect to Brooks’ wife, Tomika Miller, who was grieving him at his funeral while White was taken into custody.
Findling did confirm that White was the woman Brooks referred to as his girlfriend but would not share any other details of her life, apart from that she has no criminal record. He said that while she was at the Wendy’s on the night in question, the restaurant was already on fire by the time she was seen leaning into a window.
On Wednesday, a judge however refused to let her go, and set her bond at $10,000 claiming she posed a danger to the community.
Natalie White’s bond hearing happened over Zoom on Wednesday. She wore a mask inside Fulton County Jail (left). She is seen (right) in her mugshot from Tuesday
‘Let’s look at the danger to the community. So if someone is alleged to have set fire to a building with other people around, whether or not the building was occupied or not occupied, that would represent a danger to firefighters if they were able to get to the scene.
‘That Wendy’s is right next to a gas station. That’s a volatile combination,’ Judge Todd Ashley said.
He added that she was accused of setting fire to the building ‘with a torch made of a lighter and some type of can.’
Her attorney said her family did not have the money to bond her out.
Police only named her over the weekend as one of the women involved in setting fire to the fast food restaurant within hours of Brooks’ death.
White’s attorney insisted DailyMail.com on Tuesday that she did not set the fire.
Natalie White, 29, is pictured after she was taken into custody in Atlanta, Georgia, on Tuesday afternoon
White is seen at the Wendy’s while it is being set on fire on June 13
Moments before he is shot, Brooks (left) is heard telling police officers that he was meeting his girlfriend who goes by the name Natalie White, on June 12
‘She is absolutely not responsible,’ Findling said, adding that by the time she was photographed at the scene, the restaurant was on fire.
The Fulton County Sheriff’s Office Fugitive Unit arrested her around 3.30pm.
Police have not revealed how they came to link the Natalie White they shared surveillance footage of over the weekend to Brooks or the arson.
No one in his family has spoken of him having a ‘girlfriend’ either.
In bodycam footage of his encounter with police, after telling police he had been drinking, Brooks told them he’d been with his ‘girlfriend’ and that he was going to pick up Wendy’s for them.
Natalie White, seen in surveillance footage that was released by police
Brooks’ wife Tomika Miller, holding one of their children, at his funeral on Tuesday with the rest of their children
The Wendy’s where Rayshard was shot on June 12 was completely engulfed in flames
He told the officers he’d had one margarita when he fell asleep at the wheel in the drive-thru lane.
The officers tried to arrest him rather than let him go and he struggled, eventually reaching for one of the officer’s Tasers.
He was able to grab it and run away from Officer Garrett Rolfe and was shot twice in the back when he turned around to fire the Taser in Rolfe’s direction.
Within days of his death, the Wendy’s was set on fire and protests erupted over Atlanta.
Rolfe has now been charged with felony murder. Devin Brosnan, the other cop, is charged with aggravated assault for allegedly standing on Brooks’ shoulder.
Police refused to take inquiries on Tuesday afternoon after announcing White’s arrest.