Tortuguita

Crime Category: Police Shooting | Weapon Used: Gun

On January 18th, 2023, in Atlanta GA, Tortuguita was shot by police officers after he shot at them during a protest to clear out protesters occupying a proposed public safety training center.

Report: “Authorities said they killed a man who shot and injured a Georgia state trooper Wednesday morning as law enforcement officers tried to clear protesters from the site of a planned Atlanta-area public safety training center that activists have dubbed “Cop City.”

Officers from several law enforcement agencies were conducting an operation to clear people out of the area around 9 a.m. when someone fired at them and officers shot back in self-defense,

A trooper was shot in the abdomen and the man who shot at the officers was killed at the scene,”

Of the protesters, “People are “illegally occupying” the area and are committing criminal acts that endanger the community, including arson, beating people up, using explosives and setting booby traps that have the potential to seriously hurt someone, he [Georgia Bureau of Investigation Director Mike Register] said.”

Report: “According to the report, a joint law enforcement operation was being conducted at the site on Jan. 18. During the operation, Georgia State troopers encountered Manuel Paez Teran, who they say refused to comply with their commands to come out of a tent.

The report goes on to say that the troopers used a “less lethal” device known as a pepperball launcher to get Teran to leave the tent. That’s when they say Teran responded by shooting four times with a 9mm pistol through the tent, striking and “seriously injuring a GSP trooper. Six troopers then returned fire, resulting in Teran’s death.”

NYT: “The report said that after the shooting stopped, “a loud boom sounded and white smoke came from the front area of the tent,” which troopers believed to be from an “improvised explosive device (IED) deployed by Terán.”

Activists have argued the official story provided by the police is a cover-up,

“Protesters have been skeptical of the official police account of the shooting. They remember Tortuguita as a peaceful person, and accuse the S.W.A.T. team of murder.

An organizer of the efforts to stop the project, Kamau Franklin, said in an interview Friday that Mr. Christian’s report only raises further questions about the events of Jan. 18. The new details “twist the story,” Mr. Franklin said, so that “Terán somehow now is some Rambo figure in a cloth tent, able to take multiple gunshots, fire back and launch an explosive device.” He called the claims “just outrageous.”