6 Atlanta Officers Charged After Release of 'Disturbing' Arrest Video

SOURCE: NPR.org, 2020-06-02

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Atlanta Cops fired for violent arrest of two college students, Messiah Young and Taniyah Pilgrim.
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RAW: Police Body Camera Footage From Fired Atlanta Officer. The view from the body camera of now-fired Officer Ivory Streeter. He and other Atlanta police officers were fired and placed on desk duty after violently arresting two college students after curfew Saturday May 30, 2020. Officers surrounded a car being driven by Morehouse College student Messiah Young. Spelman College student Taniyah Pilgrim was in the passenger seat. The officers pulled Pilgrim out and used a Taser on Young.

Veteran officers Mark Gardner and Ivory Streeter were fired after video showing their use of excessive force against #MessiahYoung and #TaniyahPilgrim went viral after being broadcast live on television. The couple were in a car leaving the downtown area after the 9 p.m. curfew went into effect.

Body camera footage from Streeter obtained by GPB News shows Young being pulled from a Mazda and stunned by police with a Taser.

About 2:30 into the video, Young is seen driving the Mazda and pulling closer to the sidewalk to film with his cellphone the arrest of someone on the sidewalk. This appears to agitate the officers, who then confront Young and ask whether he wants to go to jail.

About 3:30 into the body camera video, Young is seen driving away from officers who say he can't go anywhere and shortly thereafter run toward the car that is stuck in traffic.

By 4 minutes and 20 seconds into the footage, an officer breaks the driver's side window of the car and Streeter immediately fires the stun gun at Young. No words are exchanged during this part of Streeter's body camera video.

By about minute 5:18 Young is out of the car in zip-tie hand restraints and asking, "What is the point of all this?"

That's when Streeter said something about believing Young had a weapon.

Young suffered an epileptic seizure last night, according to Spelman College Student Government Association"

Six Atlanta police officers are facing a slew of charges for their role in the arrest of two young people last weekend. The incident, during which officers used stun guns on the pair and pulled them from their vehicle, received national attention after bystanders recorded and posted video to social media.

"I agree with Mayor [Keisha Lance] Bottoms and I agree with our police chief, Erika Shields, when they both have conveyed in so many separate ways that the conduct in this incident -- it is not indicative of the way that we treat people in the city of Atlanta," Fulton County, Ga., District Attorney Paul Howard told reporters Tuesday.

Howard's office has filed charges -- mostly assorted aggravated assault and battery counts -- against a half-dozen officers involved in the arrest: Lonnie Hood, Willie Sauls, Ivory Streeter, Mark Gardner, Armond Jones and Roland Claud. Streeter and Gardner have been fired from the force since Saturday's confrontation, while three others have been placed on desk duty.

Howard said the charges are backed up by extensive interviews with the young couple, Taniyah Pilgrim and Messiah Young, as well as video evidence from bystanders and the officers' body camera footage.

The district attorney played one such video from a bodycam. During the video, officers on foot confront Pilgrim and Young, who had been passing them in a car. After the two black occupants appear to drive away briefly from the officers, Pilgrim and Young stop -- at which point the officers swarm the vehicle. Stun guns are used on both occupants, who are ripped from the car over Pilgrim's screams to stop.

Pilgrim was never charged; Young was charged with attempting to elude officers before the charge was dismissed at the request of the mayor, who apologized. "We just need to see that all officers are held accountable, and that there really is change moving forward within the culture of policing," Young said at a news conference.

Atlanta and other cities have seen widespread protests over the past week after another video -- that of George Floyd's arrest in Minneapolis -- catalyzed outrage over violence in policing. Floyd died after Derek Chauvin -- who has since been fired from the Minneapolis police and charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter -- dug a knee into Floyd's neck for nearly nine minutes.

Video of the incident involving Pilgrim and Young caused a stir of its own. "We understand our officers are working very long hours under an enormous amount of stress," the Atlanta mayor said Sunday, describing the video as "disturbing on many levels." "But we also understand that the use of excessive force is never acceptable."

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