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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
World
Emily Lawford

Atlanta police officers fired for dragging students Messiah Young and Taniyah Pilgrim out of car in George Floyd protest

Two Atlanta police officers have been fired after bodycam footage captured them dragging a pair of college students from a car during protests over the death of George Floyd.

The video, released by police, shows more than a dozen officers surround Messiah Young and Taniyah Pilgrim in Mr Young's car in downtown Atlanta on Saturday night.

An officer forces one of the front doors open, while another smashes the glass of another door.

Both students are heard screaming in the video. At one point Mr Young urges the officers to let them go, saying: "I'm not dying today".

One officer uses a taser on Ms Pilgrim and pulls her out of the car. Another tasers Mr Young, shouting, "Get your hand out of your pockets" and "he's got a gun".

No gun was found at the scene, according to the police report.

Police investigators Ivory Streeter and Mark Gardner have been dismissed, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said. Both officers had been with the force for more than 10 years.

Three other officers have been put on desk duty pending an investigation, the mayor told a news conference.

Mark Gardner wrote in an incident report that he deployed his taser "to bring the female passenger under control."

Miss Pilgrim has been released without charges.

Mr Young was released after being charged with attempting to elude police and driving with a suspended licence.

The mayor has ordered that the charges against him be dropped.

Miss Pilgrim told CBS46 that the incident was "the worst of her life" and "truly traumatising".

Erika Shields, Chief of Atlanta Police, apologised on behalf of the officers and described their actions as "unacceptable".

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