The young daughter of Rayshard Brooks was waiting in her birthday party dress not knowing her father had been shot dead by police, his lawyers have revealed.

Mr Brooks had visited a mall with his eldest daughter just hours before he was fatally shot by an Atlanta police officer during an attempted arrest outside Wendy’s fast-food restaurant on Friday.

The 27-year-old father had taken her to get her nails painted and they enjoyed a meal together. He was looking forward to the birthday party the family had planned for her the following day – but Mr Brooks never made it.

Family lawyer Justin Miller said Mr Brooks’ daughter still had her birthday dress on when he visited the family.

“She was waiting for her dad to come pick her up and take her skating … while we were sitting there talking to her mom about why her dad’s not coming home,” Mr Miller said.

Atlanta police announced that officer Garrett Wolfe had been fired following the fatal shooting of Mr Brooks, and another officer, Devin Brosnan, had been placed on administrative duty.

Roughly 150 protesters marched outside the Wendy’s restaurant outside where Mr Brooks was shot, reigniting demonstrations that had largely simmered in the Georgia capital nearly three weeks after George Floyd, another black man, died after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed a knee to his neck.

The parking lot of the Wendy’s in Atlanta where Mr Brooks was shot and killed by Atlanta police. Photo: AAP

Near the scene of the shooting, street protests began on Saturday, with more than 100 people calling for the officers to be charged criminally in the case.

Protesters shut down a major highway in Atlanta and burned down a Wendy’s restaurant, which was in flames for more than 45 minutes before fire crews arrived to extinguish the blaze.

By that time the building was reduced to charred rubble next to a gas station.

Other demonstrators marched onto Interstate-75, stopping traffic, before police used a line of squad cars to hold them back.

Friday’s shooting came after police were called to Wendy’s over reports that Mr Brooks had fallen asleep in the drive-thru line. Officers attempted to take him into custody after he failed a field sobriety test, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

A bystander’s video showed Mr Brooks struggling with two officers on the ground outside Wendy’s before breaking free and running across the parking lot with what appeared to be a police TASER in his hand.

A second videotape from the restaurant’s cameras shows Mr Brooks turning as he runs and possibly aiming the TASER at the pursuing officers before one of them fires his gun and Mr Brooks falls to the ground.

Mr Brooks ran the length of about six cars when he turned back towards an officer and pointed what he had in his hand at the policeman, Vic Reynolds, director of the GBI, told a press conference.

“At that point, the Atlanta officer reaches down and retrieves his weapon from his holster, discharges it, strikes Mr Brooks there on the parking lot and he goes down,” Mr Reynolds said.

-with AAP