Authorities identify person killed at Atlanta’s ‘Cop City’ training center site

Law enforcement killed a 26-year-old who shot a Georgia state trooper Wednesday as officers were attempting to clear protesters from the forest site of a controversial proposed public safety training facility near Atlanta.

Activists have been occupying the area they call “Cop City” since late 2021 in an attempt to halt the project. But a coalition of law enforcement agencies says the groups are terrorizing project workers and endangering local residents.

What to know about the shootings at ‘Cop City’

Officers from several agencies were clearing people out of the area in a “planned operation” early Wednesday when the shootings happened, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said.

According to the GBI, officers located “a man inside a tent in the woods” and gave “verbal commands.” The person “did not comply” and shot a trooper “without warning,” said Mike Register, head of the GBI, in a Wednesday press briefing.

“Other law enforcement officers returned fire, hitting the man. Law enforcement evacuated the Trooper to a safe area. The man died on scene,” the GBI said.

The trooper was shot in the abdomen and taken to a local hospital, where he underwent surgery, said Col. Chris Wright, Commissioner of the Georgia Department of Public Safety. The trooper was in the ICU in “stable condition” but was “not out of the woods yet,” Wright said.

The bureau on Thursday identified the person killed by law enforcement as Manuel Esteban Paez Teran and released an image of the scene that appears to show a hammock covered by a tarp.

According to the GBI, law enforcement located and removed approximately 25 campsites in the operation and found “mortar style fireworks, multiple edged weapons, pellet rifles, gas masks, and a blow torch.”

Officers arrested and charged seven people with domestic terrorism and criminal trespass, with additional charges pending, the GBI said. The people are in their 20s and 30s and hail from Maine, Maryland, New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.

In a statement Thursday, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said he and his family “continue to pray for the Trooper shot by a militant activist in yesterday’s operation.”

“As we have always done, the state respects peaceful protest,” Kemp said. “In fact, three protestors were asked to vacate the area yesterday, complied with instruction, and were able to leave without incident. But as I have also always said, acts of violent intimidation, destruction, and terrorism will NOT be tolerated in Georgia.”