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Berquis Terran (left), Daniel Paez (middle), Manuel Esteban Paez Terran’s family and Pedro Terran (right) hug. Additional autopsy results regarding Terran’s death were announced at a press conference Monday in Decatur, Georgia.
Alex Slits/AP
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Alex Slits/AP

Berquis Terran (left), Daniel Paez (middle), Manuel Esteban Paez Terran’s family and Pedro Terran (right) hug. Additional autopsy results regarding Terran’s death were announced at a press conference Monday in Decatur, Georgia.
Alex Slits/AP
DECATUR, Ga. — An environmental activist who was shot dead in a clash with Georgia law enforcement in January was sitting cross-legged with his hands in the air at the time, the protester’s family said on Monday. said at the announcement of the autopsy results. .
Manuel Paez Teran’s family held a press conference in Decatur to announce the findings and file a public records lawsuit seeking to compel Atlanta police to release evidence related to the Jan. 18 killing of Paez Teran. said there is. We used Tortuguita and the pronoun they.
A lawyer for the family says the Georgia Bureau of Investigation has been investigating the shooting for nearly two months, preventing Atlanta police from releasing additional evidence to the family. It has long been dubbed “Cop City” by opponents who occupied the forest to protest the 85-acre (34-hectare) land being developed as a training facility for police and firefighters.
Citing the conclusions of an autopsy, civil rights attorney Brian Spears said, “Manuel had the face of death and had his hands up when he was killed.” I wouldn’t say I know what happened, the second autopsy is a snapshot of what happened, but it’s not the whole story…”
In a statement, the agency said it prevented “improper release of evidence” to preserve the integrity of the investigation.
Paez Teran’s death and dedication to protesting their training center put the ‘Stop Cop City’ movement on the national and international stage, with left-wing activists across the country holding an all-nighter to join the protests that began in 2021. I urged them to move. Several, including earlier this month, when more than 150 masked activists left a nearby music festival, stormed the planned site of a training center, set fire to construction equipment and threw stones at retreating law enforcement officers. The protest turned into violence.
Officials said officers shot Paez Teran, 26, after he opened fire, seriously injuring a state trooper, while officers plan to build a training center in a forest in the Atlanta area. wiped out activists from. The Bureau of Investigation says it continues to support its initial assessment of what happened.
Paez Terran has been camping in the woods for months to protest the construction of a “cop city”. Their family and friends said the activist practiced non-violence and accused authorities of state-sanctioned killings.
The Bureau of Investigation has said no body camera or dashcam footage of the shooting exists, and ballistic evidence indicates the wounded soldier was shot with a bullet from a legally purchased gun in 2020. I’m here.
Spears said the family requested a second autopsy after the DeKalb County coroner’s office conducted the first autopsy. Authorities have not released the DeKalb County report, so it is unclear whether they reached a similar conclusion that Paez Terran had his hands up and his palms facing inwards at the time of the shooting.
“Manuel loved the forest,” said his grieving mother Belquis Teran. “It gave them peace. They meditated there. The forest connected them with God. I didn’t think Manuel could die in a meditation posture.”
According to the family’s autopsy report, Paez Teran’s body had been torn apart and shot at least a dozen times, and that “many of the scars on his body converged, coalesced, and intersected, and the ability to pinpoint individual scars was limited.” very limited”, even if it is impossible. “
The report also says it was “impossible to determine” whether the activist was carrying a gun when he was shot.
An autopsy was performed by Dr. Chris Sperry. Dr. Chris Sperry was the Bureau of Investigation’s longtime chief medical examiner until he abruptly resigned in 2015, but the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that Sperry “didn’t spend hundreds of hours at GBI when he was actually working for clients.” He also claimed to have been working,” and then suddenly resigned. of his forensic consulting firm. “
The Atlanta City Council has approved construction of the proposed $90 million Atlanta Public Safety Training Center in 2021, saying the state-of-the-art campus will replace substandard offerings and boost police morale. George speaks out against the racial injustice that roiled the city after the death of his Mr. Floyd in 2020.
In addition to classrooms and an administration building, the training center includes a shooting range, a driving course for practicing chases, and a “burning building” for firefighters to work on firefighting. A “simulated village” with fake homes, convenience stores and nightclubs will also be built, where authorities will rehearse raids.
Paez Terán moved from Florida last year and joined forest activists who were protesting by camping on the property and building foundations in the surrounding trees.
Self-proclaimed “foresters” say building the training center would require cutting down so many trees that it would damage the environment. They are against investing large sums of money in projects they say will be used.
Atlanta has witnessed numerous protests since Paez Teran’s death, including the January 21 incident when masked activists set police cars on fire and shattered the windows of the downtown skyscraper housing the Atlanta Police Foundation. Some of them even escalated into riots.
On March 5, at a construction site where a training center was to be built, one group threw burning bottles and stones at officers while another group set heavy machinery on fire. Twenty-three people face domestic terrorism charges in connection with the attack. Activists say it was not violent agitators who were arrested, but “peaceful concertgoers who stayed away from the demonstrations.”
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