Charges dropped against Atlanta police officers accused of tasing HBCU students during protests

Charges have been dropped against the Atlanta police officers who tased two HBCU students in 2020 who were caught in the middle of police shooting demonstrations.

Charges dropped against Atlanta police officers

According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, prosecutors have dropped criminal charges against the six Atlanta police officers: Ivory Streeter, Lonnie Hood, Mark Gardner, Ronald Claud, Willie Sauls and Armond Jones.

The officers were accused of the unlawful handling and arrest of Messiah Young and his girlfriend Taniyah Pilgrim on May 30, 2020 during a protest taking place five days after the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

Fulton County District Attorney Paul L. Howard Jr., announced charges against the six officers, after the incident initially, but an official review determined that they were not criminally liable.

“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,” Atlanta Judicial Circuit District Attorney Pro Tempore Samir Patel said in a statement.

Young was a student at Morehouse College. Pilgrim was a student at Spelman College.

The students were driving near the protest at about 9:44 p.m, after a curfew had been instituted and were removed from their car by the officers. Body camera footage released by police shows officers smashing the driver’s side window and forcibly removing Young and Pilgrim out of the vehicle.

Video of the incident went viral and caused widespread outrage.

Former Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms fired Streeter and Gardner the day after the incident and issued a public apology to the students for what she described as an excessive use of force. However they were later reinstated following an investigation from the Civil Service Board that said the city failed to follow the proper personnel procedures.

Attorney Mawuli Mel Davis said the students will continue to pursue a civil rights lawsuit against the Atlanta police that they filed in June 2021.