Killing of Manuel Esteban Paez Terán

Manuel Esteban Paez Terán, also known as Tortuguita, was a Venezuelan environmental activist and eco-anarchist who was shot and killed by Georgia State Patrol Troopers, after a Georgia State Patrol Trooper was wounded  during a raid of the Stop Cop City encampment on January 18, 2023.

Bodycam footage from the incident, after the shooting, includes video recordings of police from the scene speculating that the officer's gunshot injury was the result of friendly fire. Autopsy results showed Paez Terán sustained 57 gunshot wounds, and found no visible gunpowder residue on their hands. However, a Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) report found traces of gunshot primer that could be present from Paez Terán shooting a weapon, police gunshots, or contamination.

Terán's family claims that Paez Terán's hands were up at the time of the shooting, based on independent autopsy results showing bullet exit wounds in both hands.

The claim of friendly fire is disputed by the Atlanta Police Department, which has alleged that Paez Terán fired at APD officers without warning after they had ordered the activist to exit the tent they were camping in.

A forensic ballistic analysis report by the GBI claims a 9mm handgun belonging to Paez Terán (legally purchased in 2020) was used to shoot the officer during the police raid. The details of this report's analysis have not been released publicly.

On April 19, the DeKalb County Medical Examiner's office released an autopsy, which found at least 57 gunshot wounds on Paez Terán's body and ruled their death a homicide; the autopsy also found no evidence of gunshot residue on Paez Terán's hands.

According to The Guardian, Paez Terán was the first environmental activist in modern U.S. history to have been shot and killed by police during a protest. Demonstrations and vigils were held in several cities in the United States and internationally in reaction to the shooting, including a riot in Atlanta on January 21, 2023. Many organizations and some members of Congress have condemned the killing and called for an independent investigation of the events.

Background
Paez Terán was a 26-year-old Venezuelan environmental activist and graduate of Florida State University who had been active in several social justice movements, including Food Not Bombs, before joining the Stop Cop City forest defense actions in Atlanta. Paez Terán went by the nickname "Tortuguita", which is Spanish for "Little Turtle."

The Stop Cop City protests that Paez Terán was participating in were part of a broader movement related to longstanding tensions about police violence in the United States, following the murder of George Floyd in 2020. Stop Cop City demonstrators oppose construction of the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, which is slated to be built within a predominantly Black neighborhood.

Fatal shooting
On the morning of January 18, 2023, Paez Terán was inside a tent at the Stop Cop City encampment. At around 9:00 a.m. that morning, Georgia State Patrol troopers commenced a raid, also known as a Clearing Operation, on the encampment with the intent of removing and clearing illegal encampments and trespassers.

At approximately 9:00 a.m. during the clearing operation, as law enforcement was moving through the property, officers located a person inside a tent in the woods. According to the GBI account of the events that followed, officers gave verbal commands to the person, who did not comply. Officers then used a "less lethal" pepperball launcher device in an attempt to remove them from the tent, after which the GBI alleges that Terán fired four shots from a Smith & Wesson M&P Shield 9mm, striking a Georgia State Patrol Trooper multiple times. Six troopers that were also on-scene fired on and fatally injured Terán.

A GBI report published October 2023 claims that after the shooting ceased, a loud "boom" sounded, with white smoke coming out of Terán's tent, which troopers believed to be from an IED deployed by Terán. The report was released in conjunction with the announcement that no charges would be filed against the involved troopers.

Officers say that a trooper, Jerry Parrish, suffered serious injuries and was struck multiple times – including below his armor plate and above his belt on his right side. According to the officers' account, one of the bullets lodged in his spine and he was transported to Grady Hospital by ambulance where he underwent surgery to remove the bullet.



Investigations
Police accounts of the incident claim troopers encountered a tent and gave verbal orders for the person inside to exit; police say their commands were ignored and that Paez Terán fired first without warning. Stop Cop City activists dispute the police description of the event. Other protesters and Paez Terán's family dispute that Paez Terán fired a gun. The shooting was initially under investigation by both the GBI and Dekalb County District Attorney's Office. District Attorney Sherry Boston requested an independent prosecuting agency to take over the investigation to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest, because her office is involved in a task force for the Atlanta Public Training Facility. On April 14, 2023, the case was given to a Special Prosecutor with the Mountain Circuit District Attorney's Office.

According to the GBI, forensic ballistic analysis determined that the projectile recovered from the officer's leg wound matched the handgun found in Paez Terán's possession. The details of the analysis have not been released publicly. The recovered handgun, a Smith & Wesson M&P Shield 9mm semi-automatic pistol with serial number JFE8099, was determined to have been purchased legally by Paez Terán in September 2020. Four 9mm cartridge cases were recovered by a GBI agent inside the tent occupied by Terán and were found to have been fired from the recovered Smith & Wesson handgun registered to Terán.

Police claim that Paez Terán refused to leave the tent, and subsequently shot and wounded an officer with that gun. Testing of gunshot primer residue (GSR) revealed the presence of particulates characteristics of gunshot primer residue on Terán. An Autopsy was performed by the Dekalb County Medical Examiner on January 19, 2023, and in that examination gunpowder residue was not seen on the hands.

According to the GBI, there is no bodycam footage of the shooting itself. On February 9, 2023, Atlanta police released body camera footage of the aftermath of the shooting wherein an officer is heard saying,

"'(inaudible), you fucked your own officer up,'"

Two officers are later heard asking "Did they shoot their own man?" In the footage, officers were also heard saying that the gunfire "sounded like suppressed gunfire." This comment led some to believe that the officer had been injured by friendly fire rather than by Paez Terán.

Results from an independent autopsy determined that Paez Téran had been shot 14 times "by different firearms" with their hands raised while sitting cross-legged on the ground, indicated by, but not limited to, the downward trajectory of fire of bullets from above and the pattern of injuries on the legs. The autopsy also says that "... none of the identified firearm wounds exhibited any evidence of close range firing" because traces of gunpowder were not found, but that "... for the purposes of this report, the range of fire for all of these wounds is considered to be 'indeterminate.'"

Some newspapers have claimed that Paez Terán's hands were raised above their head, based on the independent autopsy report. Although this scenario is possible, the independent autopsy report states that "[at] some point during the course of being shot, the decedent was able to raise [their] hands and arms up and in front of [their] body, with [their] palms facing towards [their] upper body." Exit wounds were found on the palms of both hands, and Paez Terán's upper body was struck by more than one bullet.

On April 19, 2023, the DeKalb County Medical Examiner released an autopsy and ruled Paez Terán's manner of death to be homicide. The autopsy found that contrary to police statements and reports, Paez Terán did not have gunshot powder on their hands. As reported by The Guardian, the results of the gunshot residue test performed by the GBI may not be conclusive. The findings of the county autopsy also suggest that the police who opened fire on Paez Terán were likely to have been more than several feet away when officers' weapons were discharged.

On October 6, 2023, the Stone Mountain Circuit District Attorney's Office, which was assigned as a special prosecutor for the case, announced that they will not charge the six Georgia State Patrol Officers involved in the fatal shooting of Terán - stating that the troopers' use of force was "objectively reasonable under the circumstances of the case."

Reaction and unrest
Notable vigils and protests were held in the U.S. cities of Atlanta, Bridgeport, Minneapolis, Nashville, Philadelphia, and Tucson from January 20–22, 2023. Some demonstrators spray painted graffiti on Bank of America buildings to protest the company's involvement in financing the facility's construction. Vigils were also held in the U.S. cities of Seattle and Chicago, and internationally in London and Lützerath.

Atlanta riot
On January 21, 2023, there was a vigil for Tortuguita. A group of about 40 adults and children placed candles and homemade signs by the turtle in Clark Park, Atlanta. Later in the day, protests briefly turned violent in Atlanta. Demonstrators had marched from Underground Atlanta down Peachtree Street. At the intersection with Ellis Street, some demonstrators threw objects, set at least two Atlanta Police Department vehicles on fire, and smashed windows of bank buildings with hammers. Six people were arrested and charged criminally for actions during the January 21 riot. Police alleged that several of the persons arrested possessed explosives.

Stop Cop City issued a statement the day after the riot stating, "Destruction of material is fundamentally different from violence. All reported acts appear to be explicitly targeted against the financial backers". On January 26, 2023, Georgia governor Brian Kemp declared a state of emergency in response to unrest that had erupted following the killing.

Response
In the aftermath of the fatal shooting, the Georgia General Assembly considered legislation to require state patrol officers to wear body cameras.

In February, U.S. Representatives Cori Bush, Rashida Tlaib, and Senator Ed Markey called for an independent investigation into the killing. Several hundred national and international organizations have condemned the killing and called for an independent investigation.