Continuing Coverage: Atlanta Protests
APD spokesman John Chaffee said the investigation into the May 30 incident involving students Messiah Young and Taniyah Pilgrim remains open and the agency would have no further comment.
Former officers Ivory Streeter and Mark Gardner were fired the day after their confrontation with the students and on Monday filed a lawsuit against APD Chief Erika Shields and Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms claiming they were fired without a proper investigation.
Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard has announced criminal charges against Streeter, Gardner, Hood, Jones and two other officers.
Jones was charged with aggravated battery and pointing or aiming a gun while Hood is accused of two counts of aggravated assault and one count of simple battery.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has reached out to the Atlanta Police Union for comment.
Police body camera video showed an officer trying to remove Young, 22 from the vehicle, while it was stopped in the middle of Centennial Olympic Park Drive, where a large throng of protesters had gathered. Young and Pilgrim, his girlfriend, were tased and dragged from their vehicles with no apparent warning. They have said they were out on a date that night and just looking for a place to have dinner, unaware they were out past the city’s curfew, since rescinded, that was in place at the time.
In a statement, Chris Stewart, Mawuli Davis and Justin Miller, attorneys for the students, praised the mayor for “making every effort to right a wrong that was obvious to all when watching the officers’ body cameras.”
“We can’t continue to allow members of law enforcement to recklessly abuse the citizens they are sworn to protect,” the statement read.
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