(11ALIVE) A prosecutor overseeing the January law enforcement shooting of Manuel Paez Teran, an activist who had been camped out in the South River Forest opposing the future Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, has determined the shooting was "objectively reasonable" and that there will be no charges against the six Georgia State Patrol troopers who were primarily involved.
George R. Christian, a north Georgia district attorney who took oversight of the shooting incident when DeKalb D.A. Sherry Boston recused her office from the Teran case (she later recused her office from all public safety training center cases), released his findings Friday in a 31-page report.
Christian determined that troopers, upon encountering Teran in a tent in the woods on Jan. 18, 2023, gave advanced notice of intent to use a "less lethal" way to force the activist out the tent: a pepperball launcher. Christian's report states that Teran "refused to comply with the lawful commands" to leave the tent, and that Teran ultimately shot four times at the troopers from inside the tent after the pepperballs were fired.
Teran was killed in the return fire, the report states, struck with at least 57 gunshot wounds.
The death of the activist earlier this year had a mushrooming effect on the protest movement against the training center, which opponents call "Cop City." Teran's family and the activist community have stridently opposed the official narrative that Teran shot first, describing them (Teran used nonbinary pronouns) as a pacifist and suggesting a trooper shot in the incident was hit by "friendly fire."
In a release, attorneys for Teran's family called the report a "rubber stamp of the GBI's version of events without any critical analysis" and contended the DA was not being forthcoming with evidence, now that the report has been released.
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