3:44 PM PT -- Atlanta's Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms has announced that two of the officers involved with pulling these two people from their car have now been fired from the force.
Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms says the video of excessive force by 2 APD officers in the arrest of 2 college students kept her up all night. Both were fired. 1 officer was there 16 years. The other 20 years.@wsbtv
— Carol Sbarge (@carolsbargeWSB) May 31, 2020
Reports on the ground say one of the officers had been with APD for 16 years, the other for 20. Mayor Lance Bottoms reportedly expressed dismay at the video that has since gone viral.
A black couple was removed from their vehicle with incredibly excessive force by police officers in Atlanta -- and, supposedly, it's all because they were out past curfew.
The viral video was captured live on the air Saturday night by CBS46 -- the local ATL affiliate that was reporting on the protests and riots going down Saturday night. During the broadcast, one of the reporters and cameramen began filming a wild encounter on the streets ... showing a young couple being yanked from their vehicle by riot gear cops.
WATCH: here’s my video of when two young people were tased, dragged out of their car in downtown Atlanta Saturday night. We’re working to find out why this happened and what led up to it @cbs46 https://t.co/JL4nMFCnls pic.twitter.com/USRby69Kp2
— Jasmina Alston (@JasminaAlstonTV) May 31, 2020
It's unclear what exactly led up to the altercation, but CBS46's news banner during the segment read "POLICE BEGIN ENFORCING 9PM CURFEW." That has led many to speculate that these two individuals were simply targeted for being out of their homes when 9 o'clock rolled around ... which, if true, is absolutely insane.
More troubling than that, though, is how the officers dealt with them -- opening their door, demanding they exit ... and then resorting to tasering both of them and pulling them out when the man and woman refused. They even reportedly broke the windows/slashed tires.
ICYMI - Law enforcement deploys a Tazer on driver as they pull him from his car Saturday night. https://t.co/dSjEgItPcy pic.twitter.com/uBiW2JLYS0
— CBS46 (@cbs46) May 31, 2020
Both the man and woman were detained and cuffed on the ground, and then led away. It's unclear if they were ultimately arrested and booked for anything.
CBS46 acknowledges in their own on-the-scene reporting that they do not know why so many cops were honed in on this one vehicle -- there doesn't appear to be others around it at the time this was filmed -- but in any case, APD is being heavily scrutinized as a result.
The department has not addressed this specific situation -- we've also reached out to them about it, but haven't heard back. The only thing they've said online is that they're working on releasing the names and charges of everyone they arrested over the last 48 hours.
Originally Published -- 2:26 PM PT