ATLANTA — An autopsy shows a man shot and killed in a forest near the Atlanta public safety training site had nearly five dozen gunshot wounds on his body. State troopers fired on Manuel Paez Teran after Teran fired first, they said.
Paez Teran was one of the protesters who’d occupied parts of a forest around the public safety training center site, one that oppositions to the project have dubbed "Cop City."
When state troopers confronted Paez Teran Jan. 18, troopers said Paez Teran opened fire on them -- though troopers said no body cameras documented the incident.
According to the autopsy report, Paez Teran sustained 57 gunshot wounds -- though it’s unclear how many of them were multiple injuries from single bullets. The report also says medical examiners could not see any gunshot residue on Paez Teran’s hands.
Such residue could have confirmed the contention Paez Teran fired first.
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There's no indication in the report that the hands were swabbed for traces of it, though experts say that's no longer standard forensic procedure.
"If you’ve got gunshot residue, that hand fired a gun," said former DeKalb district attorney J. Tom Morgan, now a law instructor at Western Carolina University.
Morgan told 11Alive News a handgun doesn’t automatically spray gunshot residue onto the hand that fired it.
"The flip side is though, if you don’t have gunshot residue, that doesn’t mean the hand did not fire a gun. There are a lot of factors that go into it," Morgan said.
Which means the autopsy report doesn’t answer the question of who fired first -- Paez Teran or a state trooper.
Wednesday night, Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens held an event designed to show political backing for the project though half of the city council members who approved the project in 2021 no longer serve on the council. The construction project, which would build an 85 acre training center along Key Road Southeast, is already underway.
Last week, 11Alive saw heavy equipment clearing land for the project amid a heavy police presence guarding against disruptions from protesters.
The autopsy report concludes that Paez Teran died by homicide but it does not conclude whether the case is a murder case. If it becomes one, it would be assigned to a special prosecutor in northeast Georgia’s Habersham County.