Atlanta City Council Approves $2 Million Settlement for Students Arrested in Cars During 2020 Protests

ATLANTA — The Atlanta City Council has approved a $2 million settlement to two college students who were shocked with Tasers and pulled from a car while stuck in downtown traffic amid protests over the killing of George Floyd.

The City Council voted 13-1 Monday to approve the payment to settle a federal lawsuit filed by Messiah Young and Taniyah Pilgrim. The complaint filed in June 2021 claimed that police had no justification for removing the two students from their car and administering electric shocks.

Young and Pilgrim were students at historically Black colleges in Atlanta on May 30, 2020, when police confronted them. Video of the confrontation quickly circulated online, adding to the outrage in a city already roiled by protests.

Then-Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and then-Police Chief Erika Shields announced the next day that two officers had been fired and three others had been placed on duty. Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard announced days later that arrest warrants had been obtained for six officers.

The firings of the two officers were overturned in February 2021 after the Atlanta Civil Service Board found the city had not followed its own personnel procedures. And charges against the six officers were dropped in May 2022 by a special prosecutor assigned to the case.

The resolution approved by the council Monday states that no settlement should be considered an admission of liability.

Lawyers for Pilgrim and Young praised the city for agreeing to a settlement.

“This traumatic incident has left a permanent mental and emotional scar on these two young adults,” Pilgrim’s attorneys, Dianna Lee, L. Chris Stewart and Justin Miller, said in a statement. “This case has been an emotional rollercoaster for two innocent students who were victims of excessive force by APD officers.”

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

Police deployed a dramatic body camera the night after the confrontation.

Another young man is seen saying he did nothing wrong and begging the police to let him go as they stop him in a traffic jam on a downtown street.

Young, sitting behind the wheel of a car stopped on the street, appears to be filming with his phone as a police officer approaches and yanks open the driver’s side door. Young closes the door and urges the officers to release the other man and let him get in the car.

Young’s car gets stuck in traffic and officers rush to both sides of the car, shouting orders. One officer uses a Taser on Pilgrim as she tries to get out of the car, and then the officers remove her from the vehicle.

Another officer yells at Young to pull over and open the window. One officer repeatedly hits the driver’s side window with a baton, and another finally manages to break it.

As the window shatters, an officer uses a Taser on Young and officers pull him out of the car, some yelling, “Get your hands out of your pockets” and “He’s got a gun. He’s got a gun. He’s got a gun.” Once Young is out of the car and on the ground, officers tie his hands behind his back and take him away.

Police reports do not indicate that a weapon was found.