Two black college students were seen being pulled from their car during a violent encounter with police after Saturday's protest in Atlanta
“I was so terrified, I didn’t know what to do. What was going through my mind was how not to die. That's what was going through my mind.”
At Sunday's press conference, Bottoms said she and Police Chief Erika Shields decided to fire two of the involved officers and put three others on desk duty after reviewing footage of the incident. “Use of excessive force is never acceptable," Bottoms said, with Shields noting that the videos were “really shocking to watch.”“I really wanted to believe that the body-worn camera footage would provide some larger view that could better rationalize why we got to this space," Shields said. But after reviewing the footage, “…I knew that I had only one option, and that is to terminate the employees.
On Sunday, the fired officers were identified as Investigator Ivory Streeter, who was hired in December 2003, and Investigator Mark Gardner, hired in August 1997.Neither Bottoms' nor Shields' offices immediately responded to PEOPLE's request for comment.
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