It’s been almost two years, but Belkins Terán and Joel Paez are still seeking answers to what lead to an exchange of gunfire between police and their child, which ended in Manuel Paez-Terán’s death near the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center in January 2023.
Paez-Terán, 26, was killed during a police “clearing operation” of opponents of the training center who had occupied grounds near the construction site. The operation was led by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and other law enforcement agencies, including the Georgia State Patrol.
“I deserve answers. I deserve a proper investigation,” Belkins Terán said Tuesday during a news conference at which the couple announced a new lawsuit that alleges Paez-Teran’s First and Fourth Amendment rights were violated by police.
Attorney Jeff Filipovits said the goal of the lawsuit is to get answers from those involved in the planning and execution of the raid.
“Our goal is … to understand what happened and if someone is liable for either what happened pre-death, or responsible for setting off this catastrophic series of events (and) to hold that person liable,” he said.
While clearing the forest, state troopers encountered dozens of tents, one of which belonged to Paez-Terán, police reports say.
Paez-Terán was inside and briefly spoke to officers but refused to come out of the tent, police say. Troopers then fired pepper balls inside the enclosure in an attempt to drive Paez-Terán out and make an arrest for criminal trespassing, according to police reports. Authorities said Paez-Terán then fired a handgun and wounded a trooper before six officers returned fire, killing him.
The lawsuit alleges the GBI agent who led the clearing operation violated Paez-Teran’s rights by ordering the arrest of everyone in Intrenchment Creek Park “to end the ongoing protest against the training center.”
“It was a dangerous situation that was started because they were trying to clear out a peaceful protester from a public place because they didn’t like what message they were putting out,” Filipovits said at the news conference.
Two GSP troopers were named individually in the lawsuit for alleged excessive force — one who allegedly ordered the pepper balls to be fired into the tent and the other who allegedly carried out the order.
A spokesperson for the GBI, which investigated the fatal shooting, declined to comment on pending litigation. The Georgia State Patrol also declined comment.
Filipovits said they didn’t bring claims against the officers who fatally shot Paez-Terán, saying they were placed “in just as dangerous of a position as everyone else with how this was planned and carried out.” An independent prosecutor announced in October 2023 that no charges would be filed against those state troopers. Filipovits said that played no role in the decision about who to name in the suit.
Filipovits said they still don’t know what happened in the moments leading up to the shooting, but argue Paez-Teran’s presence was lawful since the park was a public space that was open to the public at the time of the shooting. It was later closed by DeKalb County in March 2023.
“Law enforcement went into that public space that had been used for months as a meeting ground, as a community ground, as a central place for the political opposition to Cop City and they went in with an order to arrest anyone inside that park,” Filipovits said.
The GBI said the raid took place on “DeKalb County property owned by the city of Atlanta.”
Filipovits also criticized the Attorney General’s attempt to introduce Paez-Terán’s personal diary in their prosecution of 61 opponents of the training center. A judge ruled last year that parts of the diary, which is filled with anti-police rhetoric and images, can be used as evidence against those charged.
Paez said no one from law enforcement has approached the family in the almost two years since their child died. He said they just want justice.
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