Atlanta City Council Approves $2M Settlement for Tased College Students

The Atlanta City Council has approved a $2 million settlement for Messiah Young and Taniyah Pilgrim, two historically Black college students who were tased and pulled from a car during the 2020 George Floyd riots. The council voted 13-1 in favor of the settlement after Young and Pilgrim filed a federal lawsuit in June 2021, arguing that the police had no justification for their actions.

Following the incident, then-Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and then-Police Chief Erika Shields fired two officers and placed three others on desk duty. A few days later, Fulton County DA Paul Howard announced arrest warrants for six officers. However, the Atlanta Civil Service Board overturned the dismissals of the two officers in February 2021, citing procedural errors, and the charges against all six officers were dropped by a special prosecutor in May 2022.

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