6 Atlanta policemen were charged after being caught on video dragging 2 college students out of a car and smashing their vehicle's window with a baton

• Six Atlanta police officers have been charged in connection with the arrests of two college students amid George Floyd protests on Saturday night.
• Police in riot gear used stun guns against the pair and used a baton to break the car's window.
• The charges include aggravated assault, aggravated battery, simple battery, criminal damage to property, and pointing or aiming a gun, Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard said.
• Two investigators, Ivory Streeter and Mark Gardner, have been fired from the police department.
• "I feel a little safer now that these monsters are off the street and no longer able to terrorize anyone else," said Messiah Young, who was dragged from his car alongside his girlfriend, Taniyah Pilgrim.

Six officers from the Atlanta Police Department have been charged after a video captured them yanking two young people from a car after the officers smashing the vehicle's window with a baton and using a stun gun on them Saturday night.

Two of them, investigators Ivory Streeter and Mark Gardner, were fired Sunday and have been charged with aggravated assault, Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard said at a news conference on Tuesday.

The Associated Press reported that two other officers have also been slapped with aggravated assault charges, while one has been accused of aggravated battery. Other charges include criminal damage to property, simple battery, and pointing or aiming a gun, Howard said.

The video was taken during protests against police violence, tied to the death of George Floyd, who died with his neck under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer.

"I feel a little safer now that these monsters are off the street and no longer able to terrorize anyone else," Messiah Young, 22, the vehicle's driver, said at the news conference Tuesday.

According to police reports, the couple left a demonstration at Atlanta's Centennial Olympic Park, but they told WSB-TV that they were not part of any protests, and had just gone out for something to eat.

Body-worn camera footage shows that the incident began before police surrounded the car in which Young was traveling with his girlfriend, Taniyah Pilgrim, 20, according to Associated Press.

Officers were handcuffing another young man in downtown Atlanta near a row of cars. He was begging to be let go and repeating that he hadn't done anything, the Associated Press reported.

Young's car was stopped in the street and he appeared to film the police officers on his phone as an officer tried to open his car door. However, Young shut the door and said, "I'm not dying today."

He encouraged officers to free the man they were taking into custody and drove his sedan further down the street, but got stuck again in traffic. That's when officers wearing gas masks and armed with riot shields ran up to the car, yelling.

One officer used a stun gun on Pilgrim as she was attempting to climb out of the passenger seat before dragging her from the vehicle, according to the AP.

Another ordered Young to put the car in park. A policeman was seen striking the driver's side window repeatedly until it shattered. One of them then hit Young with a stun gun and pulled him out of the car screaming, "Get your hand out of your pockets," and, "He got a gun. He got a gun. He got a gun," the AP reported.

Once he was out of the vehicle and on the road, officers zip-tied Young's hands behind his back and took him away. Police reports do not mention a gun being found at the scene.

Dramatic video footage of the incident was punctuated by the pair's screams and circulated widely on social media.

Two of the officers who were fired, Gardner and Streeter, had undergone de-escalation and use-of-force training in recent months. The programs are designed to help officers defuse confrontations without resorting to violence.

"I'm so happy that they're being held accountable for their actions," Pilgrim said at the news conference, the AP reported.

Pilgrim was released without charges, according to Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms.

A police report said that Young was charged with attempting to elude police and driving with a suspended license, but Lance Bottoms said he's been released and all charges against him are being dropped. He spent a night in jail following the incident, and fractured his arm and received 20 stitches.

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