Aerial footage appears to show a crowd of people making their way to the site of a training center for police, firefighters, and EMTs in Atlanta where a fiery riot took place Sunday evening.
The video, released by the Atlanta Police Department, shows more than 100 individuals walking in a large group before cutting to different more close-up camera shots of chaotic moments during what officials are describing as a domestic terrorism attack.
Rounding out the 4 minutes and 12 seconds of footage is more video from above showing a smaller group of individuals in a forested area appearing to change their clothes.
Police said a group of “violent agitators” wearing all-black “used the cover of a peaceful protest” and conducted a “coordinated attack” at the construction area of the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, which has been derisively labeled “Cop City” by critics amid protests by anti-police and environmental activists.
Multiple video releases by police show people throwing objects, authorities arriving on the scene, officers nearly being struck by what appears to be fireworks, and multiple pieces of construction equipment on fire.
Authorities estimated there was $150,000 in property damage, according to NBC affiliate 11 Alive.
Officers “exercised restraint” and used non-lethal enforcement to conduct arrests of at least 35 people, police said. Twenty-three individuals are facing a domestic terrorism charge, a felony that could warrant up to 35 years in prison. A list provided by police shows only two of these people are from Georgia, while the rest are from other states as well as France and Canada.
The far-Left nonprofit Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) confirmed one of its employees was among those people who were arrested.
“An employee at the SPLC was arrested while acting — and identifying — as a legal observer on behalf of the National Lawyers Guild (NLG),” an SPLC spokesperson said in a statement. “The employee is an experienced legal observer, and their arrest is not evidence of any crime, but of heavy-handed law enforcement intervention against protesters.”
In a statement, Georgia Republican Governor Brian Kemp said “domestic terrorism will NOT be tolerated in this state,” and pledged, “We will not rest until those who use violence and intimidation for an extremist end are brought to full justice.”
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