'Cop City' activist Manuel Paez Terán shot 57 times in Atlanta, autopsy says

A 'Cop City' activist killed by police was shot 57 times, according to a state autopsy report.

Manuel Paez Terán, 26, had been protesting a controversial police and firefighter training site in Atlanta, Georgia.

Police have said Terán fired a gun, injuring a state trooper in the 18 January incident.

Terán's family has said they will file a lawsuit to force police to release more information.

An environmental activist, Terán went by the name Tortuguita and used they/them pronouns.

Terán's body had gunshot wounds all over, including the head, torso, hands, and legs, according to the autopsy report obtained by CBS News, the BBC's media partner in the US.

Last month, Terán's family released results of their own, independent autopsy, which claimed Terán was shot with their hands raised.

But the Dekalb County Medical Examiner noted the autopsy could not draw conclusions about Terán's body position at the time of the shooting.

"Since most shootings involving multiple gunshots are dynamic events, attempts to place the decedent in any particular position at a specific point in time is fraught with potential inaccuracies," the report stated.

The environmental activist was shot while demonstrating with other protesters at the site of a proposed 85-acre, $90m (£74m) police and firefighter training centre dubbed "Cop City" by its critics.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation said ballistics evidence suggested the injured trooper was shot with a bullet from a gun that belonged to Terán, purchased in 2020.

However, the state autopsy found no "gunpower residue" on Terán's clothes or around any of the gunshot wounds, which would have suggested Terán had shot a firearm.

There was no body camera footage of the event.

Protests over the proposed training centre in Atlanta grew violent over the winter. In March, during a separate protest over the site, Atlanta police arrested and charged 23 people with domestic terrorism offences.