Atlanta police chief reviews hours of footage from 2022 Buckhead officer-involved shooting – WSB-TV Channel 2

Police released two hours of video, 911 calls and surveillance footage on Monday. On Tuesday, the Cullins family held a press conference to discuss the footage.

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“To see your son with his arms dangling lifelessly (emotionally) … (crying), that’s not how you want to remember your son,” said his father, Quinten Cullins.

On Friday, Police Chief Schierbaum led reporters through the shooting, at times reviewing the video frame by frame.

“When our officers arrived, they were in a very crowded restaurant. You can see that right from the start when you see several patrons milling around. They are responding to a call about a man who may be armed and behaving erratically,” Schierbaum said. “The officers gave the order to put the gun to his head.”

The video shows Cullins raising his hands as he falls to the ground.

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“He said I’m not a problem, I’m not going to create a problem, I’m not going to do anything, and then they tasered him,” said James Howard, an attorney for the Cullins family.

Police showed the video frame by frame. Part of the video shows that Cullins at least touched the gun as he fell to the ground. However, his palms were raised and the gun was in his waistband when officers stunned him with the Taser.

Schierbaum explained why:

“The situation developed quickly, it was chaotic. The person was behaving erratically and there was a weapon involved. So at that point the people used a taser to stun the person so that they did not have access to the weapon,” Schierbaum said.

After being tasered, Cullins grabbed his gun and ran toward the entrance of the restaurant. A security guard on duty took down Cullins as he fled. Police say Cullins shot the security guard, forcing officers to open fire.

“Once the weapon is deployed and not released or put out of reach, the dynamic is completely different. So we don’t see that the officers did anything inappropriate during the interaction,” Schierbaum said.

“It’s not justified, it’s not justified at all,” Mya Cullins said Friday.

Nygil’s mother and her supporters say police unnecessarily escalated the situation. They say he was not acting threateningly and tried to surrender when police arrived.

“It should never have come to this,” Cullins said.

The family said they plan to pursue their lawsuit because the Atlanta Police Department believes its officers acted within the rules.

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