Emory University protests: Atlanta police release body camera footage of arrests

ATLANTA - The Atlanta Police Department has released hours worth of body camera footage that shows the interactions between them, Emory University Police and anti-war protesters when mayhem broke out on campus in late April.

RELATED NEWS: Emory protests: Students pass 'no confidence' vote against university president

On April 25, Emory University officials said 28 people were arrested, including 20 members of the Emory community, during a protest on the school's quadrangle. FOX 5 Atlanta cameras were rolling when at least one person arrested was shot with a Taser by Georgia State Patrol Troopers.

Read the statement GSP issued about the incident here.

One of those tapes, released through an open records request, appeared to show a woman using a megaphone being detained by multiple Atlanta police officers. At different points, the officers appeared to kneel on parts of her body to secure zip ties around her wrists.

In the footage, a protester can be heard shouting, "His knee is on her neck." 

Atlanta police are refuting that claim and say the video shows the protester in question pushing past their police line to an area where other people were being detained. 

Atlanta Police released body camera footage that showed what led to what appeared to be an officer placing a knee on a protester on the campus of Emory University on April 25, 2024. (Credit: Atlanta Police Department)

Another video shows a protester ripping police tape before officers moved in to arrest her.

"APD is currently reviewing our body-worn camera footage to determine if our officers made any policy violations," a spokesperson for the department said. "The Emory Police Department is the lead agency for campus matters and is managing this incident."

FOX 5 is actively reviewing the footage. The tapes can be viewed publicly here.

Pro-Palestine protesters forcibly removed from Emory University campus, 28 arrested

On April 25, students and others calling for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war set up an encampment on the school's campus. The day started with dozens of people with tents, bullhorns and other displays at the university's Decatur campus - similar to protests at other major universities across the country.

Emory officials said the protesters who had set up an encampment were trespassing on private property and refused to leave, leading the school to ask the Atlanta Police Department and Georgia State Patrol for assistance. 

Video circulated widely on social media showing two women who identified themselves as professors being detained, with one of them slammed to the ground by one officer as a second officer then pushed her chest and face onto a concrete sidewalk.  

The school claimed that the group were activists who were not connected with Emory, with a spokesperson claiming that the protesters were "attempting to disrupt our university as our students finish classes and prepare for finals." Days later, Emory President Greogry Fenves backtracked from that claim, saying it "was not fully accurate." 

RELATED NEWS: Columbia, USC, Emory protests about Israel-Hamas War ignite demonstrations across US college campuses

Since the protests, a majority of both Emory's undergraduate students and the faculty senate for Emory's College of Arts and Science have voted in favor of a no-confidence referendum against Fenves.

FOX 5 Digital Content Creator Joyce Lupiani, FOX 5 reporter Eric Perry, and the Associated Press contributed to this report.