Ambrea Mikolajczyk, who runs a construction company in Toledo, Ohio, where Brooks worked last year, said he was a hard worker who biked to work every day as he tried to overcome the
restrictions placed on him while on probation.
"Ray had overcome his circumstances. He was working hard to become the best provider, caretaker, community builder, father, husband, son, brother and relationship agent he could possibly be," she said. "The justice system and systemic racism that exists made it fairly impossible for him to try to live a prosperous life well after he had paid his debt."
In one instance, a coworker's car broke down and Brooks got off his bike and walked alongside the coworker for two hours. "That's the type of man Ray was. He looked out for everyone," she said.
Rayshard Brooks remembered as a caring father kept down by a racist legal system
In an interview in February with
Reconnect, a company that focuses on fighting incarceration,
Brooks spoke openly about his time spent in prison and his struggle to care for his family while on probation.
"I just feel like some of the system could, you know, look at us as individuals," he said. "We do have lives, you know, was just a mistake we made, you know, and, you know, not, not just do us, as if we are animals. You know, lock us away."
Brooks told the interviewer he was arrested for false imprisonment and financial credit card fraud. He said his public defender told him he could get 10 years, so he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to a year in prison.
"I'm like, 'oh my God, I have kids out here' ... so I'm trying to do the best option I can to be back to society," he said.
