Man killed by bulldozers clearing homeless camp ahead of Martin Luther King Day

A homeless antheral has been killed arsenic workers cleared a stateless encampment up of a large US holiday.

The stateless campy adjacent to the historical Ebenezer Baptist religion successful Atlanta, Georgia, was being cleared up of the city’s Martin Luther King Day celebration.

Authorities haven’t yet made wide however the victim, Cornelius Taylor, was killed, but witnesses told section media that helium was tally implicit by a bulldozer brought successful to wide the tents.

He aboriginal died successful hospital.

Officials accidental Cornelius and an Atlanta City Public Works conveyance were progressive successful an ‘incident’ astatine astir noon section clip connected Thursday.

Large crowds are expected to flood to the religion to people the vacation dedicated to the beingness and civilian rights achievements of Martin Luther King Jr, with events held successful and astir the religion implicit the play and connected Monday.

Martin Luther King Jr preached astatine Ebenezer Baptist religion arsenic co-pastor with his begetter betwixt 1960-1968, and helium was besides baptised there, making it a large venue for MLK Day events.

The stateless encampment was being cleared to marque much abstraction for attendees.

A spokesperson for Atlanta’s Housing Justice League said: ‘The sweep, anterior to which the metropolis failed wholly to cheque the tents, is simply a stopgap measurement to effort to task a false, sanitized imaginativeness of Atlanta.

‘Taylor and everyone other surviving connected the streets deserved overmuch much than to beryllium bulldozed retired of the mode for MLK Weekend festivities. Everyone deserves to unrecorded successful dignity.’

Anthony Richardson, who lived successful the aforesaid encampment, told Fox 5 his structure was ‘right behind’ Cornelius’, and that his person whitethorn person been dormant erstwhile metropolis workers announced they were clearing retired the camp.

Nolan English, a pastor who knew Cornelius, told Atlanta News First: ‘Cornelius was great, man. He had a precise affirmative cognition toward beingness contempt his circumstances. He was a large artist, large friend.

‘This was not conscionable a tragic mistake. These are lives down here.

‘Why bash we request dense instrumentality to determination tents? It’s not similar we’re bringing a wrecking shot successful for a cinder artifact building.

‘There are much humane ways of handing people.’

In erstwhile cases, societal workers and outreach teams would enactment with radical surviving successful stateless encampments for months earlier issuing an evacuation order.

Cathryn Vassell, CEO of the city’s homelessness enactment Partners for Home, said they had been moving with radical astatine that circumstantial encampment since April, with 21 erstwhile residents placed into shelters oregon housing.

‘This enactment is challenging, but we are unwavering successful our committedness to supporting our neighbors and gathering a assemblage wherever everyone has the accidental to find stableness and thrive,’ she added successful a statement.

Responding to Cornelius’s death, Atlanta politician Andre Dickens said: ‘I americium saddened by this unspeakable incidental and widen my thoughts and prayers to the household of the deceased.

‘I attraction profoundly astir each and each beingness successful this city.

‘We volition reappraisal each of our processes and procedures and instrumentality each precaution to guarantee this ne'er happens again portion we proceed our important enactment to location our unsheltered colonisation and bring our neighbors inside.’

Atlanta police’s homicide portion is investigating the circumstances of the death.

A vigil for Cornelius was held connected Saturday night, with candles spelling ‘RIP’ near connected the thoroughfare adjacent to wherever the stateless campy had been cleared away.

Speaking by candlelight, lodging activists called for justness and an extremity to stateless campy sweeps.

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