The family of a man shot and killed by Atlanta police at a Buckhead restaurant in May 2022 has filed a federal lawsuit.

Nygil Cullins, 22, was at Fogo de Chao, a Brazilian steakhouse on Piedmont Road, on May 18, 2022 when he was shot and killed by police. The lawsuit, filed by Cullins parents, Quinten and Mya Cullins, lodges civil rights and wrongful death complaints against the city of Atlanta, Fogo de Chao, Valor Protection Security and the two officers involved. No charges were filed against them and they remain on active duty.

At the time, Atlanta Police Deputy Chief Charles Hampton Jr. said restaurant staff called for help with an unruly patron. Officers tried to escort Cullins out but he was uncooperative and shot a restaurant security guard, after which officers responded by fatally shooting Cullins, Hampton said.

The lawsuit says Cullins, who had previously worked at the restaurant, was eating and drinking at the bar, a holstered handgun on his belt. A month prior to the shooting, Gov. Brian Kemp signed Senate Bill 319, referred to by backers as “constitutional carry, which allows Georgians to carry concealed handguns without first getting a license from the state

“We don’t know who shot first. We don’t if they saw him with a gun and start shooting him, I don’t know. We don’t know what went wrong,” Cullins’ father, Quinten Cullins, he said in an interview the day after the shooting. “I just know my son is not here.”

Neither the restaurant nor police department commented on the lawsuit.

Nygil Cullins, 22. was shot and killed by an Atlanta Police Officer at Fogo de Chao in Buckhead on Wednesday night.

Credit: Family photo

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Credit: Family photo

The lawsuit says Cullins sat on the floor and raised his hands “to show that he was compliant and that he did not present any threat” after officers encountered him at the bar. One of them used a Taser on Cullins, which police said at the time “had a negative effect on the subject.”

The lawsuit says Cullins suffered such pain from the Taser that he tried to leave and was tackled by a security guard. The suit says that the security guard grabbed the gun caused the gun to discharge, striking the guard and drawing fire from the police officers.

The mother and father of Nygil Cullins, Dr. Mya Speller Cullins (R), and Quinten Cullins become emotional while talking at a press conference in East Lake Friday. August 26, 2022. Steve Schaefer/steve.schaefer@ajc.com)

Credit: Steve Schaefer

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Credit: Steve Schaefer

Quinten Cullins said his son had been diagnosed with mental health issues and bipolar schizophrenia and that family had sought help for him hours prior to the shooting.

“We called 911 for them to bring someone out,” Cullins said at the time. “His mom got on the phone and made clear we were dealing with our son. We just needed someone to come and help us to get him to the hospital.”

Cullins’ mother, Mya Speller Cullins, works with mental health patients and knew what to do after she arrived at her son’s apartment in downtown Atlanta and noticed he was delusional, wasn’t on the right frame of mind and had a raspy voice.

She reached out to a mental health institution, found a bed for her son, then called 911 to get him to the facility.

“I did what I knew I was supposed to do for the best interest of my own son,” she said the day after the shooting. “I waited. An hour passed, an hour and 15 minutes passed, an hour and 20 minutes passed. By that time he was getting antsy and he left. Almost two hours later, the paramedics pulled up and the police pulled up.”

A lawyer representing the family said that the full body camera footage has not been released but the family was able to view some portions of the footage.

“We expect to get answers and justice through this legal process,” the lawyer said in an email.