Charges against a group of Atlanta Police officers for manhandling and tasing two students during the George Floyd murder protests in 2020 have been thrown out by a state-appointed prosecutor.
Cherokee Judicial Circuit District Attorney Samir Patel said in a statement that he was dismissing charges filed against officers Ivory Streeter, Mark Gardner, Lonnie Hood, Roland Claud, Willie Sauls and Armon Jones.
Patel said he was “unable to find probable cause to prosecute the officers involved for a crime under Georgia law.”
Two of the officers – Mark Gardner and Ivory Streeter – were fired from the Atlanta Police Department shortly after the incident, but their dismissal was overturned in 2021 after the Atlanta Civil Service Board found the city did not follow proprer personnel procedures.
Morehouse student Messiah Young, 22, and Spelman student Taniyah Pilgrim, 20, were in Young’s car on International Boulevard near Centennial Olympic Park on May 30, 2020 when the incident occurred.
The students said they were not part of the George Floyd protests nor did they know about the curfew hastily called by then-Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms to quell ongoing violence. The couple said they were on a date getting food and got caught up in traffic.
Both students were pulled from the car and tased for resisting arrest and “noncompliance with officers’ instructions,” Patel said, noting they were in violation of the curfew called by the mayor.
Young spent the night in jail despite having taser prongs embedded in his back, a fractured arm, and would later need stitches.
The incident was caught on video by witnesses and police-worn body cameras and sparked outrage on social media, while then-Atlanta Police Chief Erika Shields called it “really shocking to watch.”
Lawyers for the students said in a statement that both were “incredibly disappointed and disheartened” by Patel’s decision to dismiss the charges.
“The world witnessed the outrageous and unjustified level of violence perpetrated against these college students. How can a broken arm and 25 stitches be deemed the appropriate response for an alleged curfew violation?” the lawyers said in the statement.
