Two Atlanta police officers who were fired after body camera footage showed them pulling two Black college students from a car and using stun guns on them during last summer’s protests have gotten their jobs back, reports NBC News.
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms confirmed Tuesday in a statement that the city’s Civil Service Board had reversed the firings.
But “given the unrest across our city and nation at the time, and the disturbing video footage before us, I still believe that the right decision was made.”
The board found that the dismissals of the two officers, Ivory Streeter and Mark Gardner, violated city and police department ordinances and policies regarding due process, according to an attorney for the officers, Lance J. LoRusso.
The city did not conduct an investigation through the Office of Professional Standards before the June 1 firings, which is required, LoRusso told NBC News.
Bodycam video taken during protests following the killing of George Floyd last May showed officers forcibly pulling two college students, Messiah Young and Taniyah Pilgrim, from their car. Pilgrim was heard asking what is going on and crying that she was trying to get out of the car before she was apparently hit with the electric current of a stun gun.
Pilgrim, a student at Spelman College, was not charged. Young, a student at Morehouse College, faced unspecified charges that were later dropped.
Streeter and Gardner were among six officers who were charged and four who were fired in connection with the incident, which Bottoms called “disturbing on many levels.”
