DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — A federal judge dismissed the civil rights lawsuit against Georgia State Police troopers who shot and killed activist Manuel Paez Terán during protests of the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center.
The lawsuit, filed by Paez Terán’s parents, accused the troopers of using excessive force and violating the activist’s free speech rights in the Jan. 18, 2023 shooting.
U.S. District Judge Steven Grimberg stated in the ruling that the use of force was “objectively reasonable,” as Paez Terán responded with gunfire to pepper balls fired by the troopers.
The shooting of Paez Terán,known as “Tortuguita,”was a galvanizing moment for the movement to halt the construction of what critics labeled “Cop City.”
The sprawling police and firefighter training center opened in 2025 on the site of a forest and former prison farm just outside Atlanta.
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Paez Terán wounded one of the troopers, which the judge said makes the troopers’ lethal response reasonable. Judge Grimberg troopers were within their rights to fire pepper balls after the activist, who was accused of criminal trespass, did not comply with orders to leave the tent.
“Because Paez Teran initiated gunfire with the (Georgia State Patrol) officers, Plaintiffs cannot maintain that Defendants’ actions were the proximate cause of the use of deadly force that ultimately ended the decedent’s life,” the judge wrote.
Grimberg also ruled that the officers had qualified immunity, special legal protection that prevents people from suing over claims that police or government workers violated their constitutional rights.
Paez Terán’s parents, Belkis Terán and Joel Paez, are “devastated” by the judge’s ruling, according to their attorneys, Jeff Filipovits and Wingo Smith.
“They feel they are being denied the accountability they deserve,” the attorneys said in a statement. “The records of their child’s death still have not been publicly released. They will be reviewing all their legal options.”
Body camera footage from four Atlanta officers involved does not show the shooting itself, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation has said. But the agency said footage shows the officers encountered Paez Terán in a tent in the woods and fired in self-defense after the activist shot at troopers and ignored verbal commands to leave the tent.
A prosecutor declined to charge the troopers who killed Paez Terán, saying their use of deadly force was “objectively reasonable.”
Investigators have also said ballistics evidence shows the injured trooper was shot with a bullet from a gun Paez Terán legally purchased in 2020.
Activists formed the “Stop Cop City” movement to protest the construction of the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, which they said would cause environmental damage by cutting down huge swathes of trees and exacerbate flooding fears in a poor, majority-Black neighborhood.
The Associated Press contributed to the report.
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