ATLANTA – The family and friends of Nygil Cullins gathered outside the Buckhead restaurant where he was killed by Atlanta police in 2022. The demonstration comes days after the Atlanta Police Department released the 911 calls and surveillance video from the incident. 

Protesters, including Cullins’ family, friends, and supporters, gathered outside the Fogo de Chão restaurant on Friday, briefly blocking traffic on Piedmont Road. Chanting “Justice for Nygil Cullins,” they demanded accountability for his death. 

The body cam footage shows Cullins raising his hands when first confronted by the police. According to his family, police unnecessarily escalated the situation by using a Taser on Cullins after he went to the ground. The footage was released two years after the incident. 

During a virtual press conference earlier in the day, Fox 5 asked APD Chief Darin Schierbaum if the officers acted according to their training and protocols. Schierbaum responded, “This is a very chaotic situation with an erratic individual with a handgun in a restaurant. We have reviewed it beginning to end and we see that everything was, in fact, appropriate from our vantage point.” 

APD presented a slowed-down version of the video, which appears to show Cullins reaching for his gun before being tased. The video also shows that after Cullins shot a security guard who had tackled him, officers shot Cullins again when he appeared to reach for his gun a second time. 

However, Cullins’ mother, Mya Cullins, believes the police escalated the situation and created the danger. She stated, “It’s discouraging, it’s sickening, and something needs to happen,” noting that her son was experiencing a mental health crisis at the time. 

Cullins’ attorney James Howard agreed, saying, “the problem is [police] can create the danger…they can either deescalate the situation…or they can escalate the situation, make the person cornered, make the person scared.”

The family alleges that the body cam footage was released only because they are suing the city in federal court. Chief Schierbaum denied this, saying, “This was not related to the lawsuit being filed.” 

When asked then why APD waited two years to release the video, Schierbaum said, “Very recently, we entered into an agreement with the two coal investigative entities, which is the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, as well as the district attorney’s office for a 60 day review. Moving forward, that agreement obviously was not in play in 2022.”

Despite the justification given by APD, the family remains unconvinced and plans to continue their protests, seeking further accountability for the shooting. 

“We’re not going anywhere,” Mya Cullins said.

Fogo de Chão deadly shooting video released 

In the video, Cullins can be seen at the bar of Fogo De Chao in Buckhead on May 18, 2022, where he used to work. At one point, Cullins grabs a bottle of liquor from the bar. 

“We have a guy in here with a gun, and he’s acting very, very weird,” a 911 caller said. 

“He did not point the gun, but he’s yelling at everybody,” the caller added in a second call. 

Twenty-six minutes after the initial 911 call, officers responded. APD edited the video with a red circle emphasizing Cullins with the gun. The video shows officers using Tasers on Cullins. He runs, and grabs what police say is that gun. When a security guard tackles him, police say Cullins shot and wounded the guard. 

READ MORE ABOUT THE RELEASE OF THE VIDEO, 911 CALL

“You see him tackled, you see the gun discharge, you don’t see who discharged it,” Georgia NAACP President Gerald Griggs said. 

Police then opened fire. Ten gunshots can be heard and then a pause before five more are fired. 

PREVIOUS STORY: Parents of man shot, killed by Atlanta police at Buckhead restaurant demand justice

“All they had to do was go over and talk to him. They just came in there and forcibly tried to get him,” Quinten said. 

“It’s disgusting that they would sit and paint a picture that’s still not true. A lot of the things in their initial narrative does not equate to what we saw,” Nygil’s mother, Mya Cullins, added. 

Nygil Cullins wrongful death lawsuit 

Last month, Cullins’ family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the city, restaurant, and others for Nygil’s death. 

Nygil’s mother said he was suffering from mental health issues, and she had a facility for him to get help, but the transport they arraigned that night showed up too late. 

“How did we get to the point where Nygil is being tackled by security, how did we get to the point where he’s being tazed when he didn’t do anything wrong and now, he’s scared, and he believes he’s running for his life,” Cullins family Attorney Leif Howard explained. 

PREVIOUS STORY: Family of man killed by Atlanta police at Buckhead restaurant file lawsuit

The Fulton County District Attorney’s office will be the one to determine if charges will be filed. Atlanta police confirm the officers involved in this incident are still active employees with the Atlanta Police Department. 

Vice President Kamala Harris’ visit to Atlanta for the national conference of 100 Black Men of America allowed her to promote the Biden-Harris administration’s historic investments in economic development ahead of the looming Nov. 5 Election Day.

A majority Black audience of several thousand people packed into a downtown Atlanta Hyatt Regency ballroom to participate in a half-hour conversation with Harris while she’s on the latest leg of her so-called national Economic Opportunity Tour.

During the discussion moderated by TV host and comedian Steve Harvey, Harris stressed the importance of Black people accessing hundreds of billions of dollars of federal dollars allocated to infrastructure projects, small business loans, and other government programs that have been available over the past couple of years.

Harris said President Joe Biden’s administration has delivered historic progress in economic opportunities that are being underleveraged by Black entrepreneurs and others who have long faced systemic barriers to financial resources. 

 Harris urged the crowd to spread the word about programs for small business loans, government contracts, a proposal for $25,000 down payment credit for first-time home buyers, and the student loan forgiveness program that so far has provided more than $160 billion in debt relief to 5 million Americans.  

Harris also discussed steps taken to support community banks that can provide financial advice and support tailored for a specific community more than a traditional bank.

She also mentioned the steps taken to achieve a goal of a 50% increase in federal government contracts for minority-owned firms since entering office in 2021.

“When we talk about the need for people to have access to economic opportunity we have to take into account what holds people back because we don’t lack for hard work, work ethic, good ideas and vision and inspiration,” Harris said. “But there are obstacles built into the system that have to be addressed to give people the opportunity. It’s not about a handout. It’s about giving hardworking people the opportunity and not just to get by.”

Biden and Harris are entering the final stretch of their 2024 re-election campaign ahead of the Nov. 5 election showdown against former President Donald Trump in a rematch of their 2020 contest. 

Harvey expressed frustration about hearing from Black people calling his national morning radio show criticizing the  Biden-Harris administration and other Democratic officials for not doing enough to support Black people. 

“This administration needs to get the word out of what they are actually doing and what they actually accomplish so we just stop saying ‘what did you do for Black people,’” he said. 

Harris’ trip to Atlanta Friday was her fourth visit to Georgia this year. In April, the most recent stopover, she visited Atlanta to highlight the area’s award of a $158 million grant from the Department of Transportation’s Reconnecting Communities and Neighborhoods Program. 

On Tuesday, Harris will return to Atlanta to attend rapper Quavo’s inaugural Rocket Foundation Summit to discuss policies to prevent gun violence in communities. Quavo, whose real name is Quavious Marshall, gained national fame in 2013 as one-third of the Lawrenceville-based Migos rap group. The group disbanded following the November 2022 shooting death of Marshall’s nephew and Migos rapper Kirsnick “TakeOff” Ball.

Trump’s April visit to a west Atlanta Chick-fil-A became a viral moment nationally prior to Trump attending a fundraiser for his campaign later that evening. It was the first time Trump visited Georgia since he turned himself into custody at Atlanta’s Rice Street Jail in August after being indicted on charges of conspiring to illegally overturn the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia.

ATLANTA (AP) — Once a shrine to the world’s most popular soft drink, the building that housed the original World of Coca-Cola is going flat at the hands of Georgia’s state government.

Crews continued Friday to demolish the onetime temple of fizz in downtown Atlanta near the state capitol, with plans to convert the site to a parking lot.

Visitors since 2007 have taken their pause that refreshes across downtown at a newer, larger Coca-Cola Co. museum in Atlanta’s Centennial Olympic Park. The building is testament to the marketing mojo of the Atlanta-based beverage titan, getting visitors to pay to view the company’s take on its history and sample its drinks.

The park has become the heart of the city’s tourism industry, ringed by hotels and attractions including the Georgia Aquarium, the College Football Hall of Fame, the National Center for Civil and Human Rights, State Farm Arena and the Georgia World Congress Center convention hall.

State government bought the original three-story museum, which opened in 1990, from Coca-Cola in 2005 for $1 million, said Gerald Pilgrim, deputy executive director of the Georgia Building Authority. The agency maintains and manages state properties.

Once Atlanta’s most visited indoor attraction, the building has been vacant since Coca-Cola moved out in 2007, Pilgrim said. He said state officials decided to demolish it because some of the existing surface parking for the Georgia Capitol complex is going to be taken up by a construction staging area to build a new legislative office building. The demolition would create new parking adjoining a former railroad freight depot that is a state-owned event space.

“With limited space around Capitol Hill, there was a need to replace the public parking that was being lost due to the neighboring construction project,” Pilgrim wrote in an email Friday.

Lawmakers agreed this year, with little dissent, to spend $392 million to build a new eight-story legislative office building for themselves and to renovate the 1889 Capitol building. That project is supposed to begin soon and be complete by the end of 2026.

Pilgrim said the demolition will cost just under $1.3 million and is projected to be complete by Aug. 1.