After a three-year-long lawsuit against the City of Atlanta, Messiah Young and Taniyah Pilgrim have been awarded $2 million in damages.
“This is not a gift,” Chris Stewart, Pilgrim’s attorney, said in a press conference. “This is not something these kids did not deserve. These are innocent victims who were caught in traffic that night.”
According to Fox News, the night in question occurred back in May 2020 during the height of Black Lives Matter protests in response to the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. Then HBCU students Young and Pilgrim were heading home during a curfew — imposed by former Mayor Keisha Bottoms only hours before — when police pulled them out of their vehicle, tased them, and “hit them with stun guns,” according to the June 2021 lawsuit.
In the video, the students can be heard screaming and asking police what they did wrong. According to the lawsuit, Young was punched several times while detained and also suffered a deep cut which needed 13 stitches. Pilgrim said she was handcuffed and left in the back of a police van for hours.
During their arrest, Police can also be heard shouting for Young to get his hands out of his pockets and “He got a gun. He got a gun.” No weapon was found on Young that night.
The entire incident was caught on body-cam footage and later released to the public, which sparked national outrage. Directly following the incident, former Atlanta police chief Erika Shields fired two officers involved, but they have since been reinstated . Additionally, six officers involved were cleared of any charges regarding the incident, reports Fox.
Pilgrim is a student at Spelman College. After that night, she took time off but is set to graduate this December. Young was a Morehouse student but has yet to return to the school.
“A huge part of my life was diminished and … trying to move forward from this point is very, very irritating and very, very triggering,” Young said.
One year after the incident, Young and Pilgrim officially filed the lawsuit against the city claiming assault and false arrest, according to the AP.
“Accountability is what relieves pain and brings peace, and unfortunately there has been no accountability,” Mawuli Mel Davis, Young’s attorney, said in 2021.
The Atlanta City Council voted 13-1 in favor of the settlement to Young and Pilgrim. In response to the Monday ruling, Pilgrim said “I’m happy to close this chapter in my life.”
Although justice has been served, Young says he still is haunted by that night. “Every day I’m reminded of something from that night,” he said. “There seems to be a never-ending cycle of these [incidents].”
The Atlanta Police Department spends more money than most urban cities in the US, according to the Police Scorecard. The same study found police killings in Atlanta occur at a higher rate than 37 percent of the departments across the nation.
The City of Atlanta recently approved funding to build a $90 million police training facility, but residents are not having it. The “Stop Cop City” campaign has taken over the city with protests and petitions since 2023.