Democracy Now: “In Atlanta, Georgia, calls are growing for an independent investigation into the police killing of an activist Wednesday during a violent raid on an encampment of protesters opposed to the proposed $90 million “Cop City” training facility in a public forest. Law enforcement officers, including a SWAT team, were clearing protesters who had occupied a wooded area outside the center, when police claim they were fired on and fired back. Police say a Georgia state trooper was wounded by gunfire. Activists have now released the name of the victim of the police shooting: longtime activist Manuel Terán, who went by the name “Tortuguita.”
In an audio statement sent to Democracy Now! Thursday, an Atlanta forest defender describes what happened and who Tortuguita was.”
PBS Newshour: “A protest turned violent in downtown Atlanta on Saturday night in the wake of the death of an environmental activist who was killed by authorities this week after officials said the 26-year-old shot a state trooper.
Masked activists dressed in all black threw rocks and lit fireworks in front of a skyscraper that houses the Atlanta Police Foundation, shattering large glass windows. They then lit a police cruiser on fire, smashed more windows and vandalized walls with anti-police graffiti as stunned tourists scattered.
The violent protesters were a subsection of hundreds of demonstrators who had gathered and marched up Atlanta’s famed Peachtree Street to mourn the death of the protester, a nonbinary person who went by the name Tortuguita and used they/it pronouns.
Tortuguita was killed Wednesday as authorities cleared a small group of protesters from the site of a planned Atlanta-area public safety training center that activists have dubbed “Cop City.””