College Students Tasered By Police In BLM Protests Get $2M Settlement

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The city council emphasized that the settlement does not admit liability by the officers or the Atlanta Police Department.

The City of Atlanta has approved a $2 million settlement for two college students who were tasered while participating in the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests. The City Council agreed to the resolution on July 1.

On May 30, 2020, Atlanta police pulled over the plaintiffs, Messiah Young and Taniyah Pilgrim, in downtown Atlanta following a protest for George Floyd. Body camera footage revealed the officers smashing the driver’s side window of the vehicle before tasing the former HBCU students and forcibly removing them from the vehicle.

The footage, released to the public a day later, went viral, fueling the tension already brewing between BLM supporters and police. Young recorded the ordeal on his phone while urging officers to release another man who pleaded his innocence despite being detained. Officers overheard saying, “he’s got a gun” about Young, proceeded to tase and zip-tie him. However, police reports did not list any gun found on his person or in the vehicle, as confirmed by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The council emphasized that the settlement does not admit liability by the officers or the Atlanta Police Department. Despite this, the lawyers for Young and Pilgrim stated that the settlement will allow their clients some restitution for the trauma they endured.

“This traumatic incident has left a permanent mental and emotional scar on both of these young adults,” explained Pilgrim’s lawyers, Dianna Lee, L. Chris Stewart and Justin Miller, in a statement obtained by the news outlet. “This case has been a roller coaster of emotions for two innocent college students who were the victims of unjustifiable excessive force by officers of the APD.”

Young’s lawyer, Mawuli Davis, added, “The resolution of the civil case will allow these young people and their families to continue healing from this traumatic experience. It is important for them to help the community to remember that the fight to prevent police brutality continues.”

In an initial response to the cops’ actions, then-mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and then-Police Chief Erika Shields announced the firing of two officers, with three more placed on desk duty. Six officers in total received arrest warrants for the excessive force documented that night.

However, in February 2021, the Atlanta Civil Service Board overturned the firings, citing that the city did not follow its personnel procedures for handling dismissals. A special prosecutor also dropped the charges against all officers in May 2022.