ATLANTA — Six Georgia legislators are calling for a federal investigation into the fatal, state law-enforcement shooting of an activist at the site of the planned Atlanta Public Safety Training Center this past January.
They’ve written a letter to the U.S. Attorney General asking him to investigate not only that death, but also “a pattern of misconduct” by state law enforcement.
The lawmakers believe the U.S. Department of Justice would be able to conduct an independent investigation into the shooting death of activist Manuel Teran by law enforcement officers on January 18, when Georgia State Patrol troopers and others in law enforcement were clearing protestors from the property where Atlanta's controversial police and fire training center - referred to by opponents as “Cop City” - will be built.
That incident also left a state trooper, who has not been publicly identified, seriously wounded.
The six lawmakers, all Democrats from metro Atlanta, who are making the request of Attorney General Merrick Garland, are Sen. Nabilah Islam of Lawrenceville, Sen. Jason Esteves of Atlanta, Sen. Nan Orrock of Atlanta, Rep. Ruwa Romman of Duluth, Rep. Jasmine Clark of Lilburn, and Rep. Kim Schofield of Atlanta.
They are saying that state and local investigations into the shooting have only raised questions instead of answered them.
For example, did Teran fire the first shot, or fire at all? Did the round that wounded the trooper come from Teran’s gun as the GBI's ballistic tests indicated? Was Teran trying to surrender when law enforcement officers shot him dozens of times?
Georgia state troopers do not wear body cameras; there are no known video recordings of what happened. The legislators say that the evidence collected and analyzed, so far, has been conflicting, confusing and inconclusive.
“Any time you take a life under the authority of a badge, under the color of law, you should have more scrutiny,” said Atlanta Attorney Mike Puglise on Monday.
Puglise, a former police officer in metro Atlanta who is not associated with the investigations into the January fatal shooting, told 11Alive he supports bringing in the FBI and U.S. Attorney’s Office. He said that would help eliminate any appearance of a conflict of interest in having one state agency, the GBI -- whose agents were also on the scene that morning -- investigating another state agency, the Georgia State Patrol.
“You should welcome those investigations,” Puglise said. “By all accounts, if this is a clean shooting and there's no error on part of law enforcement, whether it's the Georgia State Patrol or local law enforcement, then that is going to be cleared up, and then that's going to bring more credibility to what you're looking for.... The people have a right to know.”
But the lawmakers go even further in their letter -- they’re asking the Justice Department to investigate “the persistent pattern of misconduct within state law enforcement agencies, to include, but not limited to, the January 18, 2023 incident.”
They do not list incidents they say would show a “pattern of misconduct.”
The legislators were not available Monday to answer questions from 11Alive, but Sen. Islam emailed a statement Monday night: "The handling of information and conflicting reports demands an independent investigation to restore credibility and ensure the truth of what happened is known. There are too many unanswered questions and each new report seems to raise more. The Governor should order Georgia State Patrol to wear body cameras."
11Alive is working to find out from the Justice Department when, and how, the Attorney General is going to respond to their request for an investigation.