7 arrested, chemical agents deployed at Atlanta protest
Seven people were arrested at an Atlanta protest where chemical agents were deployed against people protesting a grand jury’s decision to not indict officers in the fatal Kentucky shooting of Breonna Taylor.
The arrests were made Wednesday night after the protesters refused orders to disperse from roads, Georgia State Patrol Spokesperson Franka Young told The Associated Press. A majority of the nearly 300 protesters had followed orders.
Young said the chemical agents were fired after “some unruly protesters” attempted to vandalize and climb on top of a SWAT vehicle stationed in the city. “They were given orders to get off of the vehicle and when they ignored the orders, the SWAT team was forced to utilize less lethal gas to deter them,” he said.
Some protesters ran for cover as gas filled the air near where the vehicle was parked.
That protest in Atlanta and others in cities around the county began after prosecutors in Kentucky said two
officers who fired their weapons at Taylor, a Black woman, were justified in using force to protect themselves. Taylor, an emergency medical worker, was shot multiple times by the white officers after one of them was shot while bursting into her Louisville, Kentucky, home during a narcotics investigation in March.
Kentucky Attorney General Daniel
Cameron said the officers acted in selfdefense after Taylor’s boyfriend fired at them. One officer was charged with three counts of wanton endangerment for shooting into a home next to Taylor’s with people inside.
Young said all the arrested protesters in Atlanta have been charged with failure to disperse. Two face additional charges.