Tuesday afternoon, arrest warrants have been issued for Atlanta Police Department officers Lonnie Hood, Willie Sauls, Ivory Streeter, Mark Gardner, Armond Jones and Roland Claud. Some of the charges against the officers include aggravated assault of Messiah Young, aggravated assault of Taniyah Pilgrim, simple battery and criminal damage to property.
Sunday afternoon, APD Chief Erika Shields announced Mark Garner and Ivory Streeter were fired with immediate effect.
“Use of excessive force is never acceptable,” Bottoms told reporters Sunday afternoon. Shields called the footage “really shocking to watch.”
The officers have until the end of the day on June 5 to surrender, Howard said. A $10,000 signature bond has been set for all six officers, according to Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard.
Bottoms had said she was disturbed when she saw the video and ordered charges to be dropped against the Young who was tased. Pilgrim was not charged.
“As we watch the video today, it became abundantly clear immediately with the young woman that this force was excessive,” Bottoms said on Sunday. “It also became abundantly clear that the officer who tased the young man needed to be terminated as well.”
One of the officers wrote in a police report that he used his taser because he was unsure whether Pilgrim or Young were armed. However, no weapon was recovered at the scene.
Both Streeter and Gardner served as investigators with APD’s Fugitive Unit. On Saturday, the investigators were assisting with the civil disturbances occurring in the city. Streeter served with the APD since December 2, 2003. Gardner began service to the APD on August 19, 1997.
“Sometimes the best thing, the only thing you can do as a police chief is come in and clean up the mess that’s before you,” Shields said Sunday.
“When wrong is wrong, we have to, as law enforcement, start dealing with it in the same manner that we would deal with it with non-law enforcement,” Shields said. “For some reason, we’ve fallen into a gray area where there’s a separate set of rules for law enforcement, and if we want to get out of this space that we’re in now we have to change how we manage internally.”
