Mother of man shot and killed in Buckhead restaurant reportedly arrested during protest

ATLANTA, Georgia (Atlanta News First) – The mother of a man shot and killed at a Buckhead restaurant was reportedly arrested during a protest outside the restaurant.

Nygil Cullins, 22, was shot and killed by a police officer outside the Fogo de Chão in Buckhead in May 2022.

Members of his family and the Georgia NAACP protested outside the restaurant on Friday.

According to Gerald Griggs, president of the Georgia NAACP, Nygel’s mother, Mya, was briefly detained by police. Cullins told Atlanta News First she spoke with police to help with their investigation into the protest.

Atlanta Police said: “We can confirm that Ms. Cullins was briefly detained for investigative purposes and was released after officers completed their investigation.”

According to police, a man was also arrested for standing on the road.

A video obtained by Atlanta News First shows a police officer shoving a man to the ground.

Officers said Nygil Cullins was “unruly” and did not comply with attempts to escort him out of the restaurant. Instead, police allege Cullins attempted to flee from police before being tackled by a security guard and struck with a Taser by an officer.

Cullins was carrying a gun at the time. Police say Cullins pulled out the gun and shot the security guard. A lawsuit filed by Cullins’ survivors alleges the gun went off accidentally and that Cullins was a legal gun owner.

RELATED: Parents of man shot by police file suit against APD officers and restaurant in Buckhead

Cullin’s family also says he was suffering from a “mental health crisis” on the day of the shooting.

RELATED: “He didn’t deserve this”: Mother of man shot by police in Atlanta speaks out

Quentin and Mya Cullins, Nygil’s parents, said they had been with their son at his apartment earlier that evening and at some point called 911 to get him help for his mental health crisis. But before an officer arrived, Cullins had already left the apartment.

“I made sure to accurately describe his age, where he was from, where he lived, his background and his mental state,” Cullins said. “An hour and 15 minutes went by, an hour and 20 minutes went by and he left. Two hours later the paramedics and the police came. They didn’t ask the specifics of what he was wearing or what condition he was in when he left. The paramedics took off the gloves and got back in the car, the police got back in the car and drove off.”

Atlanta police released bodycam footage of the incident earlier this week.

RELATED: Bodycam footage released of 2022 police shooting that killed man at Buckhead restaurant

Police body camera video shows officers approaching Cullins, who is sitting at the bar with a gun in his waistband. Cullins raises his hands, and then officers push him to the ground and tell him to take his hands off the gun and put them on his head.

The video shows Cullins reaching for his gun as police officers stun him with a taser.

Atlanta police froze the video and added a red circle around the gun in Cullins’ hand. Shortly after being tasered, Cullins gets up and runs through the restaurant with the gun in his hand. At the door, he is tackled by a security guard, the video shows.

Immediately after Cullins was tackled to the ground by the security guard, a gunshot was heard. Police say the shot was fired from Cullins’ gun at the security guard.

The video does not show who shot first.

An officer then shoots Cullins six times.

Cullins puts his hand to his side, where the gun lies on the ground next to him, and the police shoot Cullins five more times. Cullins died shortly afterward.

Mya Cullins said it is documented that her son suffers from bipolar schizophrenia and they know he struggled with it for years. He was hospitalized last year and in 2020. The Cullins family adds that if only police had heard her scream, their son would still be alive.

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