6 ATLANTA POLICE OFFICERS CHARGED AFTER VIOLENTLY DRAGGING HBCU STUDENTS FROM THEIR VEHICLE
Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard announced criminal charges against the officers who were shown pulling — Messiah Young from Morehouse College and Taniyah Pilgrim from Spelman College from a car and then shooting them with their stun guns, According to Black Enterprise.
The two students were snatched out of a car, tased and arrested by Atlanta police on live television. Officers were seen smashing the windows of the car before tasing and forcefully pulling both students from inside.
“I feel a little safer now that these monsters are off of the street and no longer able to terrorize anyone else,” said 22-year-old Messiah Young, who was tasered and dragged from the car along with his girlfriend, 20-year-old Taniyah Pilgrim.
“I’m so happy that they’re being held accountable for their actions,” Pilgrim said at the news conference.
The assault on the Morehouse and Spelman college students was shown on CBS 46 News, which was reporting live.
The couple was leaving the protest at Atlanta’s Centennial Olympic Park as the video shows police officers smashing the driver’s side window, forcibly opening the passenger side door, and using stun guns on the passengers before forcing them out of the vehicle.
“Unfortunately, we have been here many, many times before, where officers are arrested,” Young’s attorney, Mawuli Davis, told CBS News. “And so we are prayerful, hopeful that this will go to its full conclusion. And these officers will not only be arrested, indicted, and convicted. Because what they did to our children, and these are our community children, they have to be held accountable for.”
Based on arrest warrants for the officers:
Ivory Streeter is charged with aggravated assault for using a Taser against Young and is also charged with pointing a gun at him.
Mark Gardner is charged with aggravated assault for using a Taser against Pilgrim.
Lonnie Hood is charged with aggravated assault against both Young and Pilgrim for using a Taser against both of them. He is also charged with simple battery for violently pulling Pilgrim from the car and throwing her down on to the street.
