Police execute search warrants, arrest one person for Cop City arsons

This is a developing story and will be updated as more information becomes available.

ATLANTA—Thursday morning law enforcement officers from a joint task force that included the Atlanta Police Department, FBI, GBI and ATF executed one arrest warrant and three search warrants on two homes in the Lakewood Heights area and one in the Starlight Heights neighborhood that police say are associated with the Stop Cop City movement.

At a press conference, Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum said the search warrants were for evidence related to a series of arson and vandalism attacks that took place over the last few months. The arrest warrant was for an arson against police motorcycles that took place in July at an APD facility at 180 Southside Industrial Pkwy, and the arrested individual was charged with first degree arson. Chief Schierbaum also said he anticipated additional arrests related to the acts of arson in the coming weeks. 

A second individual was taken from one of the three houses and detained for several hours at police headquarters.  

Due to an ongoing outage of Fulton County e-services after a hacking attack in January, phone lines at Fulton County Jail and the county’s online detainee registry are both offline, and the status of the arrested individual cannot be confirmed at this time.

The Atlanta Community Press Collective obtained a copy of one of the search warrants, which were issued by a magistrate judge in United States District Court of Northern Georgia. 

Collected evidence included: laptops; cell phones; memory cards; a modem; and stickers, a flier, and a poster for Defend the Atlanta Forest. 

The search warrant alleged violation of federal statutes on destruction of motor vehicles or motor vehicle facilities, conspiracy to commit offense or to defraud United States, solicitation to commit a crime of violence, transfer of explosives knowing or believing it will be used to commit a crime of violence, interstate domestic violence, and interstate and foreign travel or transportation in aid of racketeering enterprises. Police did not announce any charges related to these statutes. 

“These raids are an escalation at the federal level and an attack on the movement to disappear dissenters against Cop City,” said media contacts within the opposition movement to Cop City.

Residents of one of the houses searched by police say the FBI busted down a side door and called for everyone to come outside where they were put into flex cuffs, placed into police vehicles, and eventually photographed by GBI agents. All residents and guests of that home were allowed to leave on their own power. A press release sent out by representatives of the Stop Cop City movement said that one officer found a nude photograph of resident of another house, which was then displayed to other officers. Another individual—who was not arrested—reported that policed dragged them by the hair while executing the search warrant.

Representatives from the Atlanta Solidarity Fund told ACPC they plan to post bail for the arrested individual when possible. 

https://www.instagram.com/copcityvote/p/C3GSmY7uhRd

Activists announced a 5 p.m. press conference Thursday at 191 Peachtree Street, where the Atlanta Police Foundation is headquartered. 

The APF is the non-profit entity the city is using to build the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, called “Cop City” by opponents. Many of the acts of arson that occurred over the last few months were directed at companies contracted to construct the training center, which is the subject of a multi-year protest movement. 

The arsons are just one tool amongst a “diversity of tactics” used by opponents of the training center. Since 2021, activists have provided dozens of hours of public comment in front of the Atlanta City Council, held teach-ins and learning sessions, and engaged in acts of civil disobedience. The Stop Cop City vote coalition says it collected over 116,000 signatures on a petition for a referendum question that would allow voters to decide the fate of the facility. Despite turning in the referendum signatures in September, the city has yet to begin the process of validating those signatures and has spent over $1.2 million in legal fees fighting the referendum and other legal challenges in federal courts.