Nygil Cullins’ family has waited two years for the Atlanta Police Department to release the body camera footage of his fatal shooting inside a Buckhead restaurant.
That wait ended this week as police distributed a video that showed Cullins’ final moments as he grappled with police and a security guard. He was carrying a gun, the footage showed.
His family, who have said he was having a mental health episode, accused police of editing the video, an allegation they deny.
“Our response to it is we want justice. We are going to do everything that we can to ensure that happens,” his mother Mya Cullins said.
The footage released Monday shows Cullins, 22, at Fogo de Chao, a Brazilian steakhouse on Piedmont Road, the night of May 18, 2022, moments before officers arrive on the scene. Restaurant staff had placed two 911 calls alleging Cullins was being unruly.
Credit: Family photo
Credit: Family photo
Restaurant surveillance footage, also released by APD, shows Cullins arriving at the bar area of the restaurant before 7 p.m. and sitting there for about 45 minutes, scrolling on his phone and talking to other patrons. At one point, Cullins stood up and went behind the bar to grab a bottle of alcohol before returning to his seat at the bar and having a drink.
Police arrived at the restaurant and approached Cullins before they pushed him to the ground. The video was slowed down and a red circle was added by Atlanta police to call attention to the gun Cullins had holstered in his pants.
Once Cullins is on the ground, one of the officers pulled out a Taser and told Cullins to put his hands behind his head before he fired the Taser, the video shows. An APD spokesperson told the Atlanta Journal Constitution the Taser was deployed because Cullins had a weapon.
The Taser didn’t slow Cullins down.
He stood up and rushed towards the exit of the restaurant, holding his gun.
Two other officers, including a security guard, then tackled him, the footage shows. What sounds like a gunshot is heard on the video and the security guard who was on top of Cullins moved away, before an APD office opened fired on Cullins, shooting him multiple times while on the ground.
Credit: Jenni Girtman
Credit: Jenni Girtman
A federal lawsuit filed by Cullins family, stated that Cullins suffered such pain from the Taser that he tried to leave but was tackled by a security guard. The security guard grabbed the gun causing it to fire, striking the guard and resulting in police officers opening fire.
The shooting stops for a brief moment before the officer shoots Cullins multiple times again. APD again inserts a red circle to draw attention to Cullins’ gun, which is next to him. He appeared to reach out for it before the second round of shots were fired.
At a news conference Tuesday, Griggs said the footage was edited by APD to fit their narrative and justify the shooting.
“We respectfully ask for law enforcement to release their unedited version, not their editorialization. They already put their narrative out there,” Georgia NAACP President Gerald Griggs said. “We argue their narrative is incorrect.”
“He is in the middle of a mental health episode but he is not violating the law,” Griggs added.
Attorney Leif Howard, who is representing the Cullins family, said the footage was edited with the goal of justifying the shooting.
“The real truth is that the restaurant and the city of Atlanta failed Nygil Cullins and editing a video won’t be enough to hide this truth,” he said.
Credit: Jenni Girtman
Credit: Jenni Girtman
But an APD spokesperson said they released the full unedited version of the footage and simply slowed it down at parts for people to be able to see what actually happened.
Cullins’ father, Quinten Cullins, has said his son had been diagnosed with mental health issues and bipolar schizophrenia and that hours prior to the shooting, his family had sought help for him, even securing a bed at a mental health facility.
Quinten Cullins, said he watched the footage for the first time Monday night and couldn’t sleep. Quinten Cullins said his son was scared of law enforcement and “that’s all I keep seeing in my head.”
“To see your son lifeless and arms dangling, that’s not how you want to remember your son. His last moments, his last breath,” he said before he began to get emotional and shed tears.
During a previous interview, Mya Cullins, who works with mental health patients, said she knew what to do after she arrived at her son’s apartment in downtown Atlanta and noticed he was delusional, wasn’t in the right frame of mind and had a raspy voice.
She reached out to a mental health institution, found a bed for her son, then called 911 to get him to the facility. However, it took more than two hours before paramedics and officers arrived to Cullins apartment and he was already gone.
