Two black college students who were dragged from their car by Atlanta cops and tased while caught in traffic during a Black Lives Matter protest last summer are suing the city, its police and the mayor over the incident.
Taniyah Pilgrim, 21, and Messiah Young, 23, filed a federal lawsuit Thursday accusing Atlanta police officers of assault and false arrest. They said one officer dangerously escalated the confrontation by falsely claiming the pair had a gun in the May 2020 incident.
The two students, who both attend historically black colleges in Atlanta, were driving home May 30 when they got stuck in traffic amid protests following the death of George Floyd while in police custody days earlier.
Police bodycam footage captured them being confronted by officers who shouted at them, fired tasers at them and dragged them from their car as they screamed and asked what they had done wrong.
The widely viewed footage sparked an uproar at a time when tensions between the black community and police were already fraught and several officers were charged over the incident.
The two black students Taniyah Pilgrim, 21, and Messiah Young, 23, are suing after they were dragged from their car by Atlanta cops during a BLM protest last summer. Messiah Young speaks during a news conference Thursday announcing the suit
Police bodycam footage captured Taniyah Pilgrim, 21, and Messiah Young, 23, being confronted by officers who shouted at them, fired tasers and dragged them from their car as they screamed and asked what they had done wrong on May 30 2020
Pilgrim and Young held a press conference Thursday with their attorneys announcing the suit which names the city, nine officers and Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms as defendants.
According to the suit, the police stormed their car, smashed their windows and physically assaulted them in the incident.
Atlanta police had no justification for pulling them from their car and hitting them with stun guns while they were stuck in traffic, it claims.
Mawuli Mel Davis, an attorney for Young, said the pair want 'accountability' for what happened.
'For these young people to have this video out and have to live with this for the rest of their lives is unthinkable, but we are here to hold the city and all those involved accountable,' said Davis.
'Accountability is what relieves pain and brings peace, and unfortunately there has been no accountability.'
Young and Pilgrim were heading home on May 30 during a curfew declared hours earlier by Bottoms when an officer instructed Young, who was driving, to leave the area, according to the suit.
Young - unaware of the curfew - moved forward a few yards to comply with the officer but was again stuck in traffic, the suit says.
He 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.
Officers are seen pointing a taser at the two students, who both attend historically black colleges in Atlanta, through a smashed window of the car
Pilgrim is seen in the passenger seat of Young's car screaming in terror as an officer aims and deploys a taser at her
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 suit claims another officer responded by pulling out and aiming his gun at Young and dragging him violently out of the vehicle and slamming him to the ground.
Young was punched repeatedly and suffered a deep laceration to his arm that required 13 stitches, according to his attorneys.
Another officer said concern about a gun led him to hit Pilgrim with a stun gun, according to the suit.
Pilgrim's attorney L. Chris Stewart pointed out that both students were unarmed at the time and there was no reason to think otherwise.
'There was no gun. There was no weapon,' he said.
'Yet he screamed multiple times from a distance, "He's got a gun,"' which could have gotten these kids killed.'
Attorneys played video of the encounter at a news conference.
Pilgrim (left) and Young at a press conference last June. The suit, filed Thursday, accuses Atlanta cops of assault, false arrest and says one cop dangerously escalated the confrontation by falsely claiming the pair had a gun
Young turned his head away from the screen, and Pilgrim dabbed tears from her eyes.
The two students spoke of the toll the incident had taken on their lives.
'Everyday, I'm reminded of something from that night,' said Young, who attends Morehouse College.
'A huge part of my life was diminished. Trying to move forward from this point is very irritating and very triggering.
'At a point, just seeing brutality continue, you would think there would be some type of reform or change at this point.'
Pilgrim, a student at Spelman College, said she still experiences anxiety and nightmares more than one year on from the encounter.
'It's like life took a total turn for something that we didn't ask to be involved with,' she said.
She added: 'Our lives are now at a standstill because of this when we should be able to be moving on as, you know, the officers are doing.'
Atlanta Police officers Ivory Streeter, Willie Sauls, Armon Jones (left to right top row) and Lonnie Hood, Mark Gardner and Roland Claud (left to right bottom row). The six officers were slapped with criminal charges over the incident
The mayor's office said it had not been served with the lawsuit and could not comment.
Six officers faced criminal charges days after the incident including aggravated assault, pointing or aiming a gun, simple battery and criminal damage to property over the incident.
They are: Officers Lonnie Hood, Roland Claud, Mark Gardner, Armond Jones, Willie Sauls and Ivory Streeter.
Bottoms and then-Police Chief Erika Shields fired two of the officers - Gardner and Streeter - when the footage went viral, saying they had used excessive force.
In February, they were reinstated to the force after a review board overturned their firings.
Atlanta's Civil Service Board determined that the city did not follow its own personnel procedures when terminating the officers because they had not been given proper notification or adequate opportunity to respond.
At least two other officers named in the suit are no longer with Atlanta police.
Shields also stepped down as police chief about two weeks after the May 30 incident.
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