The Atlanta Police Department this week released four body-camera videos in the shooting death of Manuel Esteban Paez Teran, a protester who went by the name Tortuguita.
The shooting took place on Jan. 18, as police were clearing protesters from the woods at the site of the future City of Atlanta Public Safety Training Center. The $90 million training facility, known as “Cop City” among critics, will cover about 85 acres of the Atlanta’s South River Forest, including a mock city for training.
The facility is opposed by a combination of climate activists seeking to protect the Atlanta Forest and civil rights activists alarmed at the prospect of military-style urban warfare training for domestic police forces.
Authorities have said that Tortuguita, a so-called “forest defender,” was in a tent during the multi-department operation to clear the site and did not follow officers’ commands. According to police, they fired on Tortuguita in self defense after they shot a trooper.
The videos show officers clearing the forest, which is filled with tents. When shots are fired, one officer can be heard asking, “Is this target practice?” Amid radio chatter, officers receive an order to take cover.
An officer can be heard reacting to crosstalk on the radio, saying, “Man, you f***ed your own officer up … Did they shoot their own man?”
The videos have bolstered activists who have asserted that Tortuguita did not shoot the trooper.
“The videos released by the City of Atlanta raise more questions than they answer, but confirm the family’s worst fears that Manuel was massacred in a hail of gunfire,” Tortuguita’s family said in a statement. “The videos also show the clearing of the forest was a paramilitary operation that set the stage for the excessive use of force.”
Activists and witnesses have disputed that Tortuguita fired a gun, or even had one, but the Georgia Bureau of Investigation has said it confirmed the gun used to shoot the trooper was legally purchased by Tortuguita in September 2020.
In a statement Thursday, the GBI addressed the comments heard in the video.
“In those videos, at least one statement exists where an officer speculates that the Trooper was shot by another officer in crossfire. Speculation is not evidence. Our investigation does not support that statement,” the agency said.
Referring to the claim that Tortuguita fired first, striking a trooper, the agency said, “the initial assessment given by the GBI concerning the incident is still valid.”
The agency has said that no body-camera footage depicts the actual shooting, and that all videos will be released after the investigation is complete.