Atlanta City Council OKs $2M settlement for students tased in protests

Atlanta City Council members approved legislation on Monday for a $2 million settlement in the case of two college students who were pulled from their car and tased by police in spring 2020. The incident happened downtown as thousands were protesting the death of George Floyd in Atlanta and across the country.

College students Messiah Young and Taniyah Pilgrim were stuck in traffic shortly before 10 p.m. at Centennial Olympic Park Drive and Andrew Young International Boulevard on May 30, 2020, when they were confronted by Atlanta police.

Body camera footage shows the officers smash the driver’s side window before using their Tasers on the couple, pulling them from the car and throwing them to the ground.

A citywide curfew was in place at the time, following days of protests in downtown Atlanta in response to the death of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis. Attorneys for Young and Pilgrim said their clients didn’t realize they were violating the curfew.

The two filed a civil lawsuit in 2021 against the city of Atlanta, Former Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and the individual officers involved in the arrest: including Ivory Streeter, Mark Gardner, Lonnie Hood, Armond Jones, Willie T. Sauls and Ronald Claud.

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