Activist’s kin share 2nd autopsy report
DECATUR, Ga. — An environmental activist who was fatally shot in a confrontation with Georgia law enforcement in January was sitting crosslegged with their hands in the air at the time, the protester’s family said Monday as they released results of an autopsy they commissioned.
The family of Manuel Paez Teran held a news conference in Decatur to announce the findings and said they are filing an open-records lawsuit seeking to force Atlanta police to release more evidence about the Jan. 18 killing of Paez Teran, who went by the name Tortuguita and used the pronoun “they.”
The family’s attorneys said the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, which has been probing the shooting for nearly two months, has prevented Atlanta police from releasing additional evidence to the family. The wooded area where Paez Teran was killed has long been dubbed “Cop City” by opponents who occupied the forest there to protest the 85-acre tract’s being developed as a massive police and firefighter training facility.
“Manuel was looking death in the face, hands raised when killed,” civil rights attorney Brian Spears said, citing the autopsy’s conclusions. “We do not stand here today telling you that we know what happened. The second autopsy is a snapshot of what happened, but it is not the whole story. What we want is simple: GBI, meet with the family and release the investigative report.”
In a statement, the bureau said it’s preventing “inappropriate release of evidence” to preserve the investigation’s integrity.
Paez Teran’s death and their dedication to opposing the training center vaulted the “Stop Cop City” movement onto the national and international stage, with leftist activists from across the country holding vigils and some prompted to travel and join the protest movement that began in 2021. A few protests have turned violent, including earlier this month when more than 150 masked activists left a nearby music festival and stormed the proposed site of the training center, setting fire to construction equipment and throwing rocks at retreating law enforcement officers.
Authorities have said officers fired on Paez Teran after the 26-year-old shot and seriously injured a state trooper while officers cleared activists from an Atlanta-area forest where officials plan to build the training center. The investigative bureau says it continues to back its initial assessment of what happened.
Paez Teran had been camping in the forest for months to oppose building “Cop City.” Their family and friends have said the activist practiced non-violence and have accused authorities of state-sanctioned murder.
The investigative bureau has said no body camera or dashcam footage of the shooting exists, and that ballistics evidence shows the injured trooper was shot with a gun Paez Teran legally purchased in 2020.
Spears said the family commissioned a second autopsy after the DeKalb County Medical Examiner’s Office conducted an initial one. Officials have not released the DeKalb County report, so it’s unclear whether it reached a similar conclusion that Paez Teran had their hands raised, the palms facing inward at the time of the shooting.