Atlanta City Council members will consider a $2 million settlement next week in the case where two college students were pulled from their car and tased by police in spring 2020, as protests broke out in Atlanta and cities a cross the country over the police killing of George Floyd.
College students Messiah Young and Taniyah Pilgrim were stuck in traffic shortly before 10 p.m. at Centennial Olympic Park Drive and Andrew Young International Boulevard on May 30, 2020, when they were confronted by Atlanta police.
The Public Safety and Legal Administration Committee on Monday voted to move the legislation forward so it can be discussed in executive session during City Council’s July 1 council meeting.
Body camera footage shows the officers smash the driver’s side window before using their Tasers on the couple, pulling them from the car and throwing them to the ground.
A citywide curfew was in place at the time, following days of protests in downtown Atlanta in response to the death of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis. Attorneys for Young and Pilgrim said their clients didn’t realize they were violating the curfew.
The two filed a civil lawsuit in 2021 against the city of Atlanta, Former Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and the individual officers involved in the arrest: including Ivory Streeter, Mark Gardner, Lonnie Hood, Armond Jones, Willie T. Sauls and Ronald Claud.
Credit: Atlanta Police Department
Credit: Atlanta Police Department
The lawsuit also includes Atlanta Police Department officers Carlos Smith, Steven McKesey, Sheldon Drinkard and 10 anonymous officers deemed “John Doe Officers” who, according to court documents, were nearby when the incident occurred and did not intervene.
Six of the Atlanta police officers were fired and charged following the incident, which Bottoms called at the time a clear use of excessive force. Two were later reinstated by Atlanta’s Civil Service Board which found the city didn’t follow correct protocol for dismissal.
In 2022, criminal charges against the involved officers were dropped by prosecutors after a judge ruled they were acting in response to Young and Pilgrim’s resistance.
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