Atlanta Police Who Tased College Students Get Charges Dropped: Reports

Atlanta GA

24 May, 2022

4:17 PM

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ATLANTA, GA — Atlanta police officers seen dragging and tasing Spelman and Morehouse College students in 2020 will not face charges after an investigation by a special prosecutor and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, according to reports. Cherokee County DA Samir Patel, serving as District Attorney Pro Tempore for the Atlanta Judicial Circuit, said that he could not find probable cause to prosecute Atlanta Police Department officers, reported WAGA-TV. On May 30, the students, 20-year-old Spelman College student Taniyah Pilgrim and 22-year-old former Morehouse College student Messiah Young, were captured on camera being surrounded by Atlanta police right before they were tased and pulled out of their vehicle. The arrest happened during the protests over the police-killing of George Floyd, a Black man who was arrested in May 2020 and accused of using counterfeit money in a store. Related: Spelman, Morehouse Students Out On Bail After Tased On Live TV The young couple were heading home during a city-wide curfew declared hours earlier by then-Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, when an officer instructed Young, 23, to leave the area, reported ABC News. Young — unaware of the curfew — moved forward a few yards to comply with the officer but was again stuck in traffic, the suit says, reported ABC News. Young had been filming police confronting someone else on the side of the street, and the suit claims the officer retaliated by going after him and Pilgrim, 21, according to the news outlet. Police swarmed the vehicle, and one officer repeatedly shouted that they had a gun, though he had no reason to believe that, according to the suit. The two Atlanta officers seen in the video using force to arrest the students were fired. Bottoms announced the officers' termination. "Sometime during the night, I saw a very disturbing video of two young college students who were in downtown Atlanta yesterday evening," Bottoms said. "Our officers are working very long hours, [and] are under a very high amount of stress, but the use of force is never acceptable." Related: Thousands March In Atlanta's Protest: Community, Students Respond Former Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard first announced that six Atlanta police officers would face charges after using excessive force on the students. A total of four APD officers were fired - Investigators Ivory Streeter and Mark Garder, and later Armon Jones and Lonnie Hood - with another two, Roland Claud and Willie Sauls, put on desk duty. Related: 6 ATL Officers Face Charges After Incident With College Students After the charges, Attorney Mawuli Mel Davis, who represented Young, said that he was "prayerful" that the charges would lead to a conviction in the case. He said the officers must be held accountable for the incident. "These are good young people who are doing good things and who have a bright future," he said. "Unfortunately, we have been here many, many times before where officers are arrested and so we are prayerful, hopeful that this will go to its full conclusion and these officers will not only be arrested, but indicted and convicted. In June 2021, the students' attorneys announced they had filed a lawsuit against the city of Atlanta, then-Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, and the police officers involved, reported WXIA-TV. Gardner and Streeter were reinstated after a hearing with the Atlanta Civil Service Board in February, reported WXIA. Prosecutors announced Monday that the two college students violated curfew May 30. "The evidence, in this case, shows that the involved officers' use of force was the direct result of Mr. Young and Ms. Pilgrim's resistance to and noncompliance with the officers' instructions," prosecutors said. "The facts indicate that the officers' actions were taken in response to Mr. Young's and Ms. Pilgrim's active resistance to the officers' directives. It is also clear from the evidence that the use of the Taser, and indeed any force used by the officers ended immediately once Mr. Young and Ms. Pilgrim were subdued."