An activist killed by a Georgia State Patrol officer in January did not have gunpowder on their hands, a new autopsy from DeKalb County reveals. The report undercuts law enforcement's already-controversial claims that the activist, Manuel “Tortuguita” Esteban Paez Teran, fired a gun at police. Teran, 26, was participating in a camp-out protest against the construction of a police training facility in an Atlanta forest at the time of the Jan. 18 shooting. Police have previously claimed that Teran fired on them while the attempted to clear the encampment. An officer was shot in the leg. But the new autopsy casts fresh doubt on claims that Teran was the shooter. Teran did not have gunpowder on their hands, the report found. The autopsy found that police shot Teran at least 57 times. An earlier autopsy, released by Teran’s family, suggested that the activist was seated with their hands raised when police shot them. The DeKalb County autopsy was unable to draw the same conclusions, stating that “there are too many variables with respect to movement of the decedent and the shooters to draw definitive conclusions concerning [Teran]'s body position.” No body-camera footage of the shooting is available. However, footage from officers near the shooting has raised additional questions about police claims that Teran fired the shot that struck an officer. “Man,” an officer says on the footage. “You fucked your own officer up.”
