Atlanta releases body camera footage two years after fatal police shooting at Buckhead restaurant – WABE

For the past two years, the family of Nygil Cullins, who was shot and killed by police at a Buckhead restaurant, has wondered why authorities didn’t do more to deescalate the situation.

They say the 22-year-old black man had mental health issues and that his mother had called 911 earlier in the day for help.

The video released by the Atlanta Police Department this week is more than two hours long and combines footage of Atlanta police officers, restaurant surveillance cameras and 911 audio.

Cullins’ family has pushed for its release, including an unedited version, since the 2022 shooting in an attempt to bring accountability and transparency to the case. The family also filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the city of Atlanta and others involved in Cullins’ death in federal court last month.

The video begins with a restaurant employee calling 911 to say that Cullins was acting unruly and that he had a gun. The employee then calls a second time.

“Is this Fogo de Chao?” » asks the dispatcher.

“Yeah, I called about 10 minutes ago and now he (Cullins) came into the bar and started getting bottles,” the restaurant employee said.

The video cuts to body camera footage showing two Atlanta police officers approaching Cullins at the bar.

Cullins immediately puts his hands up and gets on his knees. His gun is visible in the front waistband of his pants, which is when one of the officers pushes Cullins onto his back and deploys his Taser.

Cullins manages to run towards the entrance. It was then that a security guard tackled him to the ground and a shot was fired.

As the video zooms in on what appears to be Cullins reaching for his gun, his family’s attorneys say in the lawsuit that it’s possible the security guard killed himself.

Lawyers for the family did not respond to a request for comment.

However, the video shows police respond by shooting Cullins approximately five times. There is a brief pause, then another series of shots are fired. Cullins’ hands are still raised, his gun resting on the ground beside him.

As of Wednesday, online court records show the city of Atlanta has not responded to the lawsuit.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation – the agency that investigates police-involved shootings – said earlier this year that its findings from the day of Cullins’ death were turned over to the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office on June 22, 2023.

WABE filed a request to record the video in February, but the prosecutor’s office said it was not in its possession.

“The Fulton County Prosecutor’s Office does not maintain records responsive to your request,” he said in a May 28 email. “At this time, there are no records responding to this open records request.”

No charges have been filed in this case.

Cullins was among a record 112 civilians shot and killed by police in Georgia in 2022.