Two Atlanta police officers who were captured on video forcibly pulling a pair of college students out of their car and placing them under arrest during protests Saturday night have been fired, Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms announced Sunday.
The two students were in downtown Atlanta during the second night of protests in the city over the death of George Floyd. In the incident, the two students were pulled from the car, stunned, and arrested. Fox 5 learned one of the students is enrolled at Spelman College and the other is enrolled at Morehouse College. Both were released from police custody Sunday.
Addressing the events from that night, the mayor called the video "disturbing."
"There clearly was an excessive use of force. We understand that our officers are working very long hours under an enormous amount of stress, but we also understand that the use of excessive force is never acceptable," Bottoms said during a news conference Sunday evening.
Five officers were involved in the incident. The three remaining officers have been assigned to desk duty pending an investigation, the mayor said. Mayor Bottoms said police body camera video from the incident would be released to the media.
