Support Your Local Police

Is anyone surprised that, when an independent autopsy was conducted, it was revealed that Manuel Esteban Paez Terán was seated cross legged with his hands up when shot to death by police.

By this, I mean that you have exit wounds on his hands, and the locations of the wounds strongly indicate this.

This is the 2nd examination of the body, but the Georgia Bureau of Investigation [GBI] has refused to release that report, or, for that matter any information at all.

In fact, the only information released to this point, by the city before the GBI shut it down, was a body cam video of some unnamed officer saying after the shooting, "Man, you've f$#@ed your own officer up."

An independent autopsy showed Manuel Teran’s hands were raised when the activist was fatally shot by state troopers in January near the site of the planned public safety training center, attorneys for the family said.

Decatur-based civil rights attorneys Brian Spears and Jeff Filipovits plan to have a Monday morning news conference to discuss the autopsy and a lawsuit the family filed Friday against the city of Atlanta under the Georgia Open Records Act. According to a release, the lawsuit was filed after the city had pledged to continue to produce additional video evidence until the GBI intervened and blocked more videos from being released.

“The GBI’s interference left the family with no choice but to file a lawsuit against the City of Atlanta,” the release states.

According to the release, an autopsy commissioned by the family showed Teran was facing multiple individuals and while getting shot, was able to raise their hands and arms up in front of their body.

“Manuel’s left and right hands show exit wounds in both palms. The autopsy further reveals that Manuel was most probably in a seated position, cross-legged when killed,” according to the release.

 It should be noted that the private medical examiner was Kris Sperry, former chief medical for the GBI, though the story there has some odd twists and turns as well.

I understand that the police really want a training facility that will allow them to practice waging war on the (largely Black) citizens of Atlanta, but extrajudicial killings of protesters is not the way to go about this.