Firings Of APD Officers After Students Pulled From Car Reversed

In this photo taken from police body camera video, an APD officer points his handgun at Messiah Young while the college student is seated in his vehicle, in Atlanta last spring.

Atlanta Police Department via AP

The firings of two Atlanta police officers over an incident in which two college students were pulled from a car in traffic during a large protest against police brutality have been overturned.

The Civil Service Board found the city did not follow its own personnel procedures, which resulted in the officers being deprived of due process because they were not given proper notification or adequate opportunity to respond. The board ordered Monday that the dismissals of Ivory Streeter and Mark Gardner be revoked.

Messiah Young and Taniyah Pilgrim, rising seniors at historically Black colleges in Atlanta, were stuck in traffic after a curfew declared by the mayor May 30 during protests sparked by the killing of George Floyd in Minnesota when officers confronted them.