Atlanta police have released body camera footage of a fatal police shooting outside a Buckhead restaurant two years later.
An officer shot 22-year-old Nygil Cullins outside Fogo de Chao, off Piedmont Road, on May 18, 2022.
Investigators said Cullins was a former employee and shot a security guard. Cullins’ parents said he was suffering from a mental crisis at the time of the incident, and his mother called for help.
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His family and their lawyers have been calling on police for two years to release full CCTV footage of the night their son died. Cullins’ family recently filed a federal lawsuit, claiming their son should not have died that night.
They said they called for mental health services, but it came too late, and accused the restaurant of falsely reporting events to summon police, leading to what they described as excessive force.
APD released the body camera footage Monday afternoon.
Channel 2’s Michael Doudna watched parts of the more than two hours of footage, which contained a total of 18 gigabytes of data, to get a better idea of what happened that night.
The video shows Cullins sitting at the restaurant’s bar for an extended period of time and putting his feet up on the counter.
Several staff members appear to speak to Cullins before two officers arrive and point guns at him. Cullins runs and the officers follow him. Moments later, officers shot him several times, then paused and shot him several more times in the restaurant’s entrance.
“You used ten shots. Five and then a break, and then five more,” a family spokesperson said. “So there will be no closure. That can only happen when there is justice, and when we see transparency until the policy is changed.”
The family released a statement saying:
“The family hopes this is the first step toward transparency by the Atlanta Police Department. After a two-year battle, they believe this tape will help clear Nigel Cullins’ name and begin the process of seeking justice and accountability from the Atlanta Police Department. They eagerly await the release of the tape and plan to discuss next steps in the case tomorrow.”
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