 So, a little more than a month ago, we talked about Torteghida. This is one of the activists trying to stop the construction of Cop City, Atlanta. But during a raid on January 18th by police, Torteghida was shot and killed by police. But because of the autopsy, we're learning that activists were right to doubt the initial police narrative because it does indeed seem as if Torteghida had their hands up when they were shot and killed. This explains, the stop Cop City activist who was shot dead by Georgia police earlier this year was likely sitting cross-legged on the ground with their hands raised when gunfire from multiple officers struck them at close range, according to an independent autopsy. Lawyers for the family of 26-year-old Manuel Esteban Payees-Taren, known as Torteghida, released the results of that autopsy in a press conference Monday. The report also showed they were shot at least 14 times, including in the face. The independent autopsy results cast additional doubt on the police's narrative, which was that they acted in self-defense after Torteghida shot an officer in the leg. Quote, they were shot so many times and by different firearms that the tracks running through the body converge and intersect, said Brian Spears, one of the lawyers representing Torteghida's family. Manuel was looking death in the face hands raised when killed. Torteghida was killed by Georgia State Patrol on the morning of January 18th as officers attempted to clear the encampment at the site of the proposed training center. The police went to the force that morning planning for violence said lawyer Jeff Philippovitz. It was a planned operation yet no one had a body camera when they shot Manuel. So this is an absolute bombshell. This evidence completely dismantles the police narrative, but it's not really that surprising. There was a reason to doubt the official narrative coming from Georgia police and anyone who was skeptical is proven right by this. Now I want to give you some additional context. We did cover this back on I believe January 24th and this video that I'm about to play for you is my additional coverage of Cop City. What it is, why Torteghida was protesting it and why activists in the area were doubtful of the police narrative. Let's watch. I want to talk about a story that is truly at the intersection of so many issues environmentalism, indigenous peoples rights, police militarization and the overpolicing of majority black cities, the American police state, so on and so forth. That story is Cop City. Now fortunately, people are finally starting to pay attention to Cop City, but the heightened awareness of Cop City comes at the expense of one activist's life. Manuel Terran, who is a 26 year old queer Afro-Venezuelan force defender who was killed by police on January 18th following a deadly raid on Cop City. Now in order to understand why Manuel was caught on the crossfire in the first place, we need to understand what Cop City is and why these activists were opposing it so vehemently. Kendall Glenn of Decaturus explains, Cop City is an 85-acre police slash fire training facility located in the Cobb County South River Forest. The location has historically been the old Atlanta prison farm site and a police shooting range. Former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms announced the plan to turn the location into a state of the art training facility in April of 2021. The project will cost approximately $90 million and the area will feature a burn tower, space for high speed chases, a helicopter pad, a shooting range, and a mock village. Yeah. Now if that doesn't already sound positively dystopian to you, well, destroying this forest is going to have catastrophic impacts on the community because this forest is essentially a shield that protects them from anthropogenic climate change. In an article for The Atlanta Voice, Scott Roberts explains, clear cutting the forest will have devastating effects on the environment, including worsened air quality and flooding in the predominantly black neighborhoods of southeast Atlanta. Furthermore, the Atlanta Police Department's current and future use of chemical weapons will poison the soil and the waters, endangering Atlantans health. So needless to say, clearing out this forest in order to create a massive military-like training facility for cops isn't just going to lead to more brutalization disproportionately of black and brown people. It's also taking away a shield that will defend them against climate change. And to add insult to injury, Cop City is being constructed on land that was stolen from indigenous people and then subsequently turned into a slave plantation. The land belonged to the Muscogee people who refer to it as the Wallani Forest for generations. Beginning in the early 1820s, the Muscogee were forcibly displaced from the area. There were a series of treaties. The removal continued into the 30s. The land then became a plantation for the remainder of the 19th century and into the early 20th century. In 1911, the city of Atlanta purchased the land. 10 years later, it became the Atlanta City Prison and Dairy Farm. From 1922 to the late 80s, the area ran as a prison farm. In 1990, the city began auctioning off farm animals and equipment. And soon after, public notice was issued to discuss future plans for the site. Now make no mistake about it. The city knows that a majority of the residents are against the creation of Cop City. They just don't care. And they also know how important this forest is for its population. Back in 2017, the Planning Department of Atlanta designated the South River Forest as the city's lungs. And this was because of the environmental significance of that forest. Now, because it was so important, they initially planned to turn the forest into an urban park. However, that idea was scrapped in favor of Cop City. And here we are now. So activists have been pushing back against the construction of Cop City in an effort to protect the South River Forest and prevent even more brutalization of black and brown people by police and to resist, they've established encampments in the forest and have occupied it for prolonged periods of time. But cops, however, have been trying to forcibly remove the protesters for quite some time to no avail. And as a result, their tactics have become increasingly violent as time progresses. And during a raid on January 18, one activist was shot dead. And that activist is Manuel Teren. Now, a Georgia State trooper was also shot and hospitalized with police claiming that Teren shot him. And Unicorn Riot reports that witnesses heard 10 to 12 gunshots all at once. So it was a fairly chaotic situation and police are claiming that Manuel fired first. But the evidence that they released thus far does not substantiate that claim. And there's no body camera footage of the incident as well, since no other officer was close enough to capture the incident. Now, Georgia's Bureau of Investigation has released this photograph of a Smith and Wesson nine millimeter handgun that they claimed was in Teren's possession at the time that he was killed. And bullet sticks experts confirmed that the bullets from this gun do in fact match the wound of the cop that was shot. But activists are disputing the cop's narrative and calling for an independent investigation by an impartial third party to figure out what really happened. And activists are rightfully skeptical of the cop's narrative because they've been caught lying to justify the use of deadly force against protesters in the past. For example, as Unicorn Riot reports in June of 2022, Atlanta police officers were caught on radio traffic justifying the use of lethal force against protesters who used Molotov cocktails to defend themselves and the forest in the midst of a police raid. No force defenders have been charged for use of Molotov's or incendiary devices. Quote, I told you deadly force encounter said one officer. That's why I brought it up. As long as we're all on the same page, Molotov cocktails, a deadly force encounter, a deadly force encounter is a situation in which cops are legally allowed to shoot and kill. Yeah. So that right there is why activists are rightfully skeptical of the cop's narrative about Terran. If they lied before to justify the use of lethal force against these protesters, what's to stop them from lying again to justify the use of lethal force against Manuel, right? Now, me personally, I fundamentally distrust cops. So I automatically just assume that they're lying every single time that they open their mouths and I work backwards from that conclusion if and only if they provide the public with an overwhelming amount of evidence to substantiate the claims that they're making. But with respect to this story, they have not done that and I simply have not been swayed. So I remain at my default position of distrust cops and assume that they're lying and short of an independent investigation, local activists don't seem to be buying it as well. And they're not letting police demonize Manuel Terran. And it seems like the community also isn't buying the official narrative from police. So this new update confirms that anyone who was skeptical of the official narrative coming from Georgia police was correct. Tortigua was murdered in cold blood by police. And that is deeply, deeply disturbing and sad, but not surprising.