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An independent autopsy determined in March 2023 that Tortuguita was shot during the January raid 14 times while seated in a cross-legged position with their hands up, resulting in at least 57 gunshot wounds.
December 18, 2024
Source: Atlanta Community Press Collective
Belkis Terán, mother of slain environmental activist Manuel “Tortuguita” Paez Terán, speaks at a press conference announcing a lawsuit against three law enforcement officers for alleged civil rights violations of her child on Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024. (Nolan Huber Rhoades)
The parents of Weelaunee Forest Defender Manuel Esteban Paez Terán—known by their family as Manny and many others as Tortuguita, or “little turtle” in Spanish—announced during a press conference today that they have filed a lawsuit against the police officers responsible for the death of their child. Tortuguita’s parents, Joel Paez and Belkis Terán, filed the case against three individual law enforcement officers for killing the 26-year-old in January 2023. Paez and Terán are represented by attorneys with the law firms Spears & Filipovits and Loevy and Loevy.
“Here we are again seeking justice for my child, Manuel,” Terán said. “This name, it means ‘God with us.’ Manuel is all of our children. The ones who dream of connection with nature, the ones who care for their communities.”
Tortuguita, an Indigenous queer and non-binary activist, died participating in years-long and still ongoing protests against the construction of a $90 million, 85-acre police training facility called “Cop City” by opponents. The City of Atlanta decided in 2021 to build the facility in an area of the South River Forest, known as the Weelaunee Forest by Indigenous Muscogee peoples. The area was seized by the Muscogee peoples in the 1800s after they were driven off of their land. It was also later used as a plantation and a City prison farm.
Activists opposing Cop City built encampments in Intrenchment Creek Park, adjacent to the forest, in order to defend the forest and to prevent the facility’s construction. Tortuguita was one of the forest defenders.
Terán spoke during the press conference about Tortuguita’s spirituality and connection to nature. “Every morning, Manuel meditated. For them, it was sacred to be in the forest,” Terán said. “Through meditation, [they were] getting close to God and to be camping is to be in a sacred place.”
A photograph of Manuel “Tortuguita” Paez Terán provided by Spears & Filipovits, LLC.
On Jan. 18, 2023, officers with the Georgia State Patrol and other law enforcement agencies raided Intrenchment Creek Park to clear forest defenders from the area. Tortuguita “was shot and killed by police while camping in Intrenchment Creek Park,” according to the complaint.
An independent autopsy determined in March 2023 that Tortuguita was shot during the January raid 14 times while seated in a cross-legged position with their hands up, resulting in at least 57 gunshot wounds. Attorney Brian Spears said during today’s press conference, “When Paez Terán refused to leave the forest that they were defending and trying to save from destruction, their body was riddled by multiple gunshot wounds. Manuel was shot in the head through their eye. Shot in their upper chest. Shot in the stomach. Shot in both arms and both legs and their feet. And in particular, the autopsy showed that Manuel’s hands were shot through the back of their hand through their palms as their palms faced their body.”
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) conducted an investigation into the officers’ shooting, culminating in a special prosecutor report which determined in October 2023 that the shooting was “objectively reasonable.” No criminal charges have been brought against the officers who killed Tortuguita.
“We are here to make sure authorities are accountable for this horrible abuse of power,” Paez, Tortuguita’s father, said during today’s press conference. “Are we supposed to believe what authorities say while there is constant secrecy and lack of transparency? You know the answer, right? No, no and no. We do not believe them.”
The lawsuit’s claims
The family’s complaint alleges three counts against three officers involved with the January 2023 raid: GBI officer Ryan Long and Georgia State Patrol officers Mark Lamb and Bryland Myers. Tortuguita’s family have brought one claim for false arrest under the Fourth Amendment, one claim for excessive force under the Fourth Amendment and one claim for retaliation under the First Amendment.
According to the complaint, six officers and one police dog surrounded Tortuguita’s tent while Tortuguita was sleeping inside. One officer shot pepper balls into the tent. “The pepper balls hit inside Manuel’s tent, filling the tent with a chemical which immediately makes it difficult to breathe and causes painful and debilitating pain to the eyes, mouth, nose and lungs,” the complaint alleges.
Attorneys for Paez and Terán noted that the lawsuit only includes an excessive force claim for the pepperball shooting and does not include a claim for the shooting itself. This is due in part to the lack of transparency surrounding the exact details of what transpired in the seconds leading up to Tortuguita’s death.
“We don’t know what happened after that. We don’t know because the GBI investigated itself,” said attorney Jeff Filipovits, referring to the internal review that the GBI made prior to handing the case off to the special prosecutor for the final call. “There are no other law enforcement witnesses. There are no body cameras, there are no recordings. Until and unless we can reconstruct this and disprove some porous part of that story, we will always have questions.”
Belkis Terán, mother of slain environmental activist Manuel “Tortuguita” Paez Terán, speaks at a press conference announcing a lawsuit against three law enforcement officers for alleged civil rights violations of her child on Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024. (Nolan Huber Rhoades)
The parents of Weelaunee Forest Defender Manuel Esteban Paez Terán—known by their family as Manny and many others as Tortuguita, or “little turtle” in Spanish—announced during a press conference today that they have filed a lawsuit against the police officers responsible for the death of their child. Tortuguita’s parents, Joel Paez and Belkis Terán, filed the case against three individual law enforcement officers for killing the 26-year-old in January 2023. Paez and Terán are represented by attorneys with the law firms Spears & Filipovits and Loevy and Loevy.
“Here we are again seeking justice for my child, Manuel,” Terán said. “This name, it means ‘God with us.’ Manuel is all of our children. The ones who dream of connection with nature, the ones who care for their communities.”
Tortuguita, an Indigenous queer and non-binary activist, died participating in years-long and still ongoing protests against the construction of a $90 million, 85-acre police training facility called “Cop City” by opponents. The City of Atlanta decided in 2021 to build the facility in an area of the South River Forest, known as the Weelaunee Forest by Indigenous Muscogee peoples. The area was seized by the Muscogee peoples in the 1800s after they were driven off of their land. It was also later used as a plantation and a City prison farm.
Activists opposing Cop City built encampments in Intrenchment Creek Park, adjacent to the forest, in order to defend the forest and to prevent the facility’s construction. Tortuguita was one of the forest defenders.
Terán spoke during the press conference about Tortuguita’s spirituality and connection to nature. “Every morning, Manuel meditated. For them, it was sacred to be in the forest,” Terán said. “Through meditation, [they were] getting close to God and to be camping is to be in a sacred place.”
A photograph of Manuel “Tortuguita” Paez Terán provided by Spears & Filipovits, LLC.On Jan. 18, 2023, officers with the Georgia State Patrol and other law enforcement agencies raided Intrenchment Creek Park to clear forest defenders from the area. Tortuguita “was shot and killed by police while camping in Intrenchment Creek Park,” according to the complaint.
An independent autopsy determined in March 2023 that Tortuguita was shot during the January raid 14 times while seated in a cross-legged position with their hands up, resulting in at least 57 gunshot wounds. Attorney Brian Spears said during today’s press conference, “When Paez Terán refused to leave the forest that they were defending and trying to save from destruction, their body was riddled by multiple gunshot wounds. Manuel was shot in the head through their eye. Shot in their upper chest. Shot in the stomach. Shot in both arms and both legs and their feet. And in particular, the autopsy showed that Manuel’s hands were shot through the back of their hand through their palms as their palms faced their body.”
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) conducted an investigation into the officers’ shooting, culminating in a special prosecutor report which determined in October 2023 that the shooting was “objectively reasonable.” No criminal charges have been brought against the officers who killed Tortuguita.
“We are here to make sure authorities are accountable for this horrible abuse of power,” Paez, Tortuguita’s father, said during today’s press conference. “Are we supposed to believe what authorities say while there is constant secrecy and lack of transparency? You know the answer, right? No, no and no. We do not believe them.”
The lawsuit’s claims
The family’s complaint alleges three counts against three officers involved with the January 2023 raid: GBI officer Ryan Long and Georgia State Patrol officers Mark Lamb and Bryland Myers. Tortuguita’s family have brought one claim for false arrest under the Fourth Amendment, one claim for excessive force under the Fourth Amendment and one claim for retaliation under the First Amendment.
According to the complaint, six officers and one police dog surrounded Tortuguita’s tent while Tortuguita was sleeping inside. One officer shot pepper balls into the tent. “The pepper balls hit inside Manuel’s tent, filling the tent with a chemical which immediately makes it difficult to breathe and causes painful and debilitating pain to the eyes, mouth, nose and lungs,” the complaint alleges.
Attorneys for Paez and Terán noted that the lawsuit only includes an excessive force claim for the pepperball shooting and does not include a claim for the shooting itself. This is due in part to the lack of transparency surrounding the exact details of what transpired in the seconds leading up to Tortuguita’s death.
“We don’t know what happened after that. We don’t know because the GBI investigated itself,” said attorney Jeff Filipovits, referring to the internal review that the GBI made prior to handing the case off to the special prosecutor for the final call. “There are no other law enforcement witnesses. There are no body cameras, there are no recordings. Until and unless we can reconstruct this and disprove some porous part of that story, we will always have questions.”
Evidence photo of Manuel “Tortuguita” Esteban Paez Terán’s tent taken after the protester was shot and killed on Jan. 18, 2023. (Provided by Spears & Filipovits, LLC)
In support of the lawsuit’s First Amendment retaliation claim, the complaint alleges, “The operation to clear Intrenchment Creek Park followed from a months-long effort by state and local law enforcement agencies to portray those opposed to the construction of the police training center as domestic terrorists,” referring to the September 2023 RICO indictment of 61 individuals alleged to be involved with the Defend the Atlanta Forest movement. The indictment accuses individuals of being “militant anarchists, eco-activists and community organizers.”
“For too long, everyone who’s been opposed to Cop City, in particular anyone who was in the forest, has been vilified as a domestic terrorist,” Filipovits said. “This demonization was open and obvious and broadcast repeatedly by the media. It’s in the RICO indictment. It’s in the domestic terrorism charges. Where we saw domestic terrorism charges for things like sleeping in a hammock. That is the context in which [Tortuguita’s killing] arose.”
The state is using Tortuguita’s diary as evidence in the RICO prosecution. Opponents say the state has sunk to new lows by entering the personal diary into public evidence, adding insult to injury by violating the privacy of someone killed by police. The probative value of the diary’s contents is little to none: only about a dozen of the diary’s 150 pages were written while Tortuguita was camping in the forest.
In support of the lawsuit’s First Amendment retaliation claim, the complaint alleges, “The operation to clear Intrenchment Creek Park followed from a months-long effort by state and local law enforcement agencies to portray those opposed to the construction of the police training center as domestic terrorists,” referring to the September 2023 RICO indictment of 61 individuals alleged to be involved with the Defend the Atlanta Forest movement. The indictment accuses individuals of being “militant anarchists, eco-activists and community organizers.”
“For too long, everyone who’s been opposed to Cop City, in particular anyone who was in the forest, has been vilified as a domestic terrorist,” Filipovits said. “This demonization was open and obvious and broadcast repeatedly by the media. It’s in the RICO indictment. It’s in the domestic terrorism charges. Where we saw domestic terrorism charges for things like sleeping in a hammock. That is the context in which [Tortuguita’s killing] arose.”
The state is using Tortuguita’s diary as evidence in the RICO prosecution. Opponents say the state has sunk to new lows by entering the personal diary into public evidence, adding insult to injury by violating the privacy of someone killed by police. The probative value of the diary’s contents is little to none: only about a dozen of the diary’s 150 pages were written while Tortuguita was camping in the forest.
“Fight like hell”
Tortuguita’s mother said that her child’s murder sends a much larger message from those in power. “It did not just happen to my child. It will continue to happen if we don’t understand why,” Terán said. “This violence is happening to a community. This destruction is happening to our rights, our rights to oppose wrong decisions, to stand up for the forest or even just meditate in a forest.”
Forest defenders and those supporting them have vocalized their passion for carrying on Tortuguita’s drive after their passing. “In Tort’s name, we continue to fight to defend the Weelaunee Forest and stop Cop City,” fliers from the Defend the Atlanta Forest movement read. “With love, rage and a commitment to each other’s safety and well-being, Justice for Tortuguita. Fight like hell for the dead and living.”
Tortuguita’s father says he’s joining them in this fight for justice.
“Myself, I should live my life looking for justice against any economic and political system of power that planned, perpetrated, covered up and attempted to morally murder Manuel Esteban Paez Terán, against a system that continues to prosecute several forest defenders,” Paez said. “Forest defenders are not terrorists.”
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