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Atlanta Fires Two More Police Officers For College Couple Tasering Incident

The police union blasted the terminations, saying they are happening without due process.

The Atlanta Police Department has fired two more police officers in connection with a May 30 incident in which two college students were tasered and dragged out of their vehicle while stuck in traffic after a protest march.

Body camera footage shows the officers using force to arrest Morehouse College student Messiah Young, 22, and his girlfriend Taniyah Pilgrim, 20, who attends Spelman College. Police violently dragged them from their car, tasered the couple and slammed them to the ground resulting in multiple injuries to both. 

Two officers, Mark Gardner and Ivory Streeter were fired the next day and all six officers involved now face criminal charges of use of excessive force.

But Atlanta station WSB-TV now confirms two other officers, Lonnie Hood and Armond Jones were also fired Wednesday afternoon (June 10). Jones had been with the department for only two years, while Hood was on the force for 29 years.

Streeter and Gardner claim they were terminated without an investigation and that their use of force in the May 30 incident was not illegal, reports the Atlanta Journal-Constitution

They have named Atlanta police Chief Erika Shields and Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms in the suit, which was filed in Fulton County State Court.

In an interview with BET.com last week, Young said that he was terrified by what happened to him and thought his life was in jeopardy.

“I don’t want to die is what kept going through my mind,” Young said. “Every time I close my eyes, I’m literally remembering and being pulled back into the moment. I literally try to just erase it."

Pilgrim’s attorney Chris Stewart said the couple was tasered multiple times and said she had to seek further medical attention after the incident was over. "They're both outstanding, tough kids and I think what has helped get them through this is their relationship. In a meeting, you'll find them sitting close. They support each other,” Stewart said.

Shields issued an apology for the officers behavior. “How we behaved as an agency with these individuals was not acceptable and I know that we caused further fear to you in a space that’s already fearful for so many African Americans,” she said in a statement.

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