A 26-year-old Atlanta-based activist killed last month was shot by police officers at least thirteen times, according to an independent autopsy ordered by the family. Manuel “Tortuguita” Teran was an environmentalist who, on Jan. 18, was shot to death by state troopers while camping out in a Georgia forest with other activists to protest the building of a public safety training center. When police arrived on scene to clear the protesters out, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation alleges Teran shot a trooper, which resulted in fellow officers opening fire on the activist. Yet, Teran’s family and fellow activists remain skeptical: “He was a pacifist,” Teran’s mother said in a press release. “They say he shot a police officer. I do not believe it.” The autopsy marks just one step in the family’s fight for an independent investigation—separate from the Georgia Bureau—into Teran’s death.
Read it at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
