Judge ends case for parents of ‘Tortuguita,’ slain training center protester
A deadly shooting by Georgia State Patrol officers that became a rallying cry for protesters against building Atlanta’s public safety training center was ultimately “reasonable” considering the circumstances, a federal judge ruled.
In his ruling Monday, U.S. District Judge Steven Grimberg noted that Manuel Paez Teran shot at the officers first, wounding one, before the officers returned fire and killed the 26-year-old. The incident happened Jan. 18, 2023, at Intrenchment Creek Park, where Paez Teran and others were camping in protest of the training center’s construction nearby.
Paez Teran’s parents, Joel Paez and Belkis Teran, sued Georgia State Patrol officers Mark Lamb and Bryland Myers in December 2024, claiming false arrest and excessive force. They also sued GBI agent Ryan Long, claiming he was additionally liable for their child’s death because he ordered the clearing of the park and the arrest of the protesters.
The judge’s ruling is based on what Paez and Teran allege happened to their child: that Paez Teran was sitting in a tent and couldn’t see the officers, that the officers fired a chemical agent into the tent, and that Paez Teran panicked and blindly fired a handgun, hitting one of the officers.
Grimberg said the law enforcement officers are shielded from liability by the legal doctrine of qualified immunity because they acted reasonably in the course of their work duties and did not violate any of Paez Teran’s constitutional rights.
“Plaintiffs’ allegations confirm that Paez Teran fired several bullets from under the cover of a tent, that the bullets hit one of the officers, and that Defendants Lamb and Myers allegedly ‘returned’ the use of deadly force only after Paez Teran initiated it,” Grimberg wrote in his order. “The Court finds that Defendants Lamb and Myers’ alleged use of deadly force was objectively reasonable under these circumstances.”
There were differing initial accounts of the incident, which became a flashpoint in the long-fought battle over the training center and came as tensions were rising between law enforcement and protesters. The training center opened April 29.
Paez Teran, who went by the activist name “Tortuguita” and used they/them pronouns, was aligned with a group known as Defend the Atlanta Forest, according to prosecutors in a separate criminal case against training center protesters.
Paez Teran’s parents initially questioned officials’ assertion their child had fired at the officers before being shot, including saying publicly that an autopsy showed the activist had been sitting cross-legged with hands raised.
The allegations laid out in the parents’ lawsuit generally match what was revealed in multiple Georgia Department of Public Safety use of force incident reports released to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in 2023.
Jeff Filipovits and Wingo Smith, lawyers for Paez and Teran, said the parents are devastated by the dismissal of their case.
“They feel they are being denied the accountability they deserve,” Filipovits and Smith said in a statement to the AJC on Tuesday. “The records of their child’s death still have not been publicly released. They will be reviewing all their legal options.”
The officers are represented in the case by lawyers from Attorney General Chris Carr’s office. Spokespeople from Carr’s office and the GBI did not comment on the ruling Tuesday. A Georgia State Patrol spokesperson confirmed Lamb and Myers are still troopers and declined to comment on the litigation.
In addition to dismissing the case, Grimberg denied Paez and Teran’s request for permission to amend their complaint. He said it would be futile for them to try to bolster their allegations, which would still fail.
The judge also highlighted several issues with the plaintiffs’ public court filings, including “what appears to be an internal note between Plaintiffs’ counsel asking whether they should ‘add facts about it being a ton of officers, saying lots of things, all with all sorts of weapons.’” He said lawyers for Paez and Teran also appeared to confuse case names related to their argument against the GBI agent.
“Far from mere typographical errors, these mistakes are material and have the potential to reveal attorney work-product, misstate the applicable law, and generally complicate litigation,” Grimberg wrote in a footnote of his order. “Plaintiffs’ counsel are advised to practice more diligence in its submissions to this Court, or to any court.”
The parents alleged in part the officers did not have authority to clear the “peaceful” protesters from the park and were unlawfully aggressive in doing so. They said Paez Teran was inside a tent when six Georgia State Patrol officers, including Lamb and Myers, approached with guns drawn.
The officers told Paez Teran they would arrest the activist for trespassing and ordered them to exit the tent, warning they would release a chemical agent, case records show.
When Paez Teran did not leave the tent, Myers released “pepper balls” into it, per Lamb’s instruction, Grimberg’s order states.
“Paez Teran panicked and fired several bullets from inside the tent, which hit one of the arresting officers,” the judge wrote. “The GSP officers, including Defendants Lamb and Myers, returned fire, killing Paez Teran.”
In their bid to end the case, the officers argued they have immunity from the parents’ insufficiently pleaded claims. They said the protesters were illegally camped in the park and had “engaged in multiple acts of violence toward police officers and construction workers.”
Grimberg said because the officers could not reasonably foresee that Paez Teran would initiate gunfire in response to their attempt to remove the activist from the park, the officers’ actions cannot be considered as the direct cause of the activist’s death.
“The allegations here establish that Paez Teran was not secured, had not surrendered to law enforcement, and was actively refusing to comply with law enforcement orders,” the judge said.
The officers were not criminally charged in relation to the incident.
After Paez Teran’s death, Carr sought to use the activist’s private diary to bolster a sweeping criminal case against the protesters, alleging they violated Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.
Carr claimed the diary showed the protesters acted as a group, and they were radicalized and criminalized in an organized way.
The RICO case was thrown out at the end of last year, however, when a Fulton County judge found Carr never had the authority to bring the claims. He’d skipped the required step of getting the governor’s permission to file them, the judge said.
About the Author
Journalist Rosie Manins is a legal affairs reporter for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
