Law enforcement killed a 26-year-old who shot a Georgia state trooper Wednesday as officers were attempting to clear protesters from the forest site of a controversial proposed public safety training facility near Atlanta.
Activists have been occupying the area they call “Cop City” since late 2021 in an attempt to halt the project. But a coalition of law enforcement agencies says the groups are terrorizing project workers and endangering local residents.
What to know about the shootings at ‘Cop City’
Officers from several agencies were clearing people out of the area in a “planned operation” early Wednesday when the shootings happened, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said.
According to the GBI, officers located “a man inside a tent in the woods” and gave “verbal commands.” The person “did not comply” and shot a trooper “without warning,” said Mike Register, head of the GBI, in a Wednesday press briefing.
“Other law enforcement officers returned fire, hitting the man. Law enforcement evacuated the Trooper to a safe area. The man died on scene,” the GBI said.
The trooper was shot in the abdomen and taken to a local hospital, where he underwent surgery, said Col. Chris Wright, Commissioner of the Georgia Department of Public Safety. The trooper was in the ICU in “stable condition” but was “not out of the woods yet,” Wright said.
The bureau on Thursday identified the person killed by law enforcement as Manuel Esteban Paez Teran and released an image of the scene that appears to show a hammock covered by a tarp.
According to the GBI, law enforcement located and removed approximately 25 campsites in the operation and found “mortar style fireworks, multiple edged weapons, pellet rifles, gas masks, and a blow torch.”
Officers arrested and charged seven people with domestic terrorism and criminal trespass, with additional charges pending, the GBI said. The people are in their 20s and 30s and hail from Maine, Maryland, New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.
In a statement Thursday, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said he and his family “continue to pray for the Trooper shot by a militant activist in yesterday’s operation.”
“As we have always done, the state respects peaceful protest,” Kemp said. “In fact, three protestors were asked to vacate the area yesterday, complied with instruction, and were able to leave without incident. But as I have also always said, acts of violent intimidation, destruction, and terrorism will NOT be tolerated in Georgia.”
According to a statement released by the Altanta Community Press Collective, which has supported the activists, “dozens of heavily armed” law enforcement officers entered “the tree line with guns drawn and heavy machinery poised to continue forest destruction.”
“Police killed a forest defender for loving this earth, for taking a stand against the ongoing destruction of the planet and its people,” the statement said.
Why are people occupying ‘Cop City’?
Activists with the “Defend the Atlanta Forest” movement – which describes itself as a “decentralized movement to defend the Atlanta forest” – have been occupying the area in unincorporated DeKalb County to halt the construction of the 85-acre training facility.
The $90 million Atlanta Public Safety Training Center is expected to host police, fire and emergency first responders and feature classrooms, a shooting range, a mock village and more, according to the Atlanta Police Foundation.
Activists say the project causes “ecological destruction” and will “hyper-militarize law enforcement,” contributing to the oppression of “Atlanta’s diverse Black and working-class communities,” according to the Defend the Atlanta Forest website.
The website notes the land has a “long history as a site of oppression,” including as a slave plantation and forced labor camp. “Rather than investing in solutions to the environmental crisis, governments are investing in heavier policing, especially of those disadvantaged groups,” the website reads.
Law enforcement warns of ‘terrorism’ at site
Law enforcement officials say people are illegally occupying the area and “have attempted to disguise” crimes as protest. There has been “growing criminal behavior and terroristic acts” over the last several months, Register said.
Late last year, officers arrested and charged five people with domestic terrorism and other charges at the site. DeKalb County District Attorney Sherry Boston said the arrests stemmed from “violent acts and trespassing.”
There have been “more than four dozen instances of violent protests,” including destruction of equipment and physical intimidation of workers, and nearly 50 people have been arrested for trespassing and throwing Molotov cocktails at police and construction workers, the Atlanta Police Foundation said late last year.
“If there was not a threat to safety, we wouldn’t be out here, and we wouldn’t be expending all the resources that we are — all the way from the governor on down to local law enforcement,” Register said.
What we know about the person killed by law enforcement
Teran identified themselves on social media as an “artist, urban farmer, antifascist, venezolano.” They went by the name “Tortuguita,” according to a statement Thursday from the Atlanta Community Press Collective.
“They spent their time between Atlanta, defending the forest from destruction and coordinating mutual aid for the movement and, and Florida where they helped build housing in low-income communities hit hardest by the hurricane,” the statement said. “They were a trained medic, a loving partner, a dear friend, a brave soul, and so much more.”
Activists online have questioned the police version of events and called on law enforcement to release any body-camera video of the incident.
Read more on Atlanta
USA TODAY
Source link