Six police officers have been charged after violently arresting two African American students in Atlanta, Georgia.
The arrest, which forcibly removed the two young people from their vehicle, was made during the city's current Black Lives Matter protests, held in response to the alleged murder of George Floyd by a Caucasian officer last Monday.
Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard confirmed that arrest warrants have been issued for officers Lonnie Hood, Roland Claud, Mark Gardner, Armond Jones, Willie Sauls and Ivory Streeter for the alleged attack on the students, which was captured on camera.
As reported by ABC News, Howard said that Hood, Sauls, Streeter and Jones repeatedly used stun guns, an electroshock weapon used to immobilise offenders, on students Messiah Young and Taniyah Pilgram and forcibly removed them from a car. An officer also smashed the vehicle's windows.
The officers face a myriad of charges including aggravated assault, pointing or aiming a gun, simple battery and criminal damage to property.
The attorney said there was no reason to wait for an indictment to charge the officers as the "information is [already] available", ABC News reports.
During the prosecutor's press conference on Tuesday afternoon (local time), Pilgram expressed her happiness that the policemen were being "held accountable" for the violent arrest.
"There was not one justifiable thing that they did," Pilgram said. "I hope they are all held accountable because it's not okay."
During Tuesday's press conference, Young said he feels "a little safer" that "these monsters are off the street", calling for a change in America's policing culture.
After the footage of the incident went viral on social media, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms called for the student's charges to be dismissed and fired both Gardner and Streeter. The rest of the officers are on desk duty, according to the outlet.
