Protesters damaged property at numerous locations on Peachtree Street in downtown Atlanta Saturday in the wake of a shooting earlier this week near the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center — a controversial future law enforcement training site — in which a Georgia state trooper was wounded and a man was killed.
Masked activists dressed in all black threw rocks and lit fireworks in front of a skyscraper that houses the Atlanta Police Foundation, shattering large glass windows, according to the Associated Press. They then lit a police car on fire and vandalized other buildings with anti-police graffiti as stunned tourists scattered, the AP reported.
“Several arrests have been made at this time and order has been restored to the downtown space,” Atlanta police said on social media.
Over the past several months, the tension between protestors and law enforcement over the future training site has been rising, until it came to a boil last Wednesday.
Georgia Department of Public Safety
A Georgia state trooper was shot and wounded Wednesday morning, and a man identified by police as 26-year-old Manuel Esteban Paez Teran was fatally shot during a planned multi-agency operation to remove protesters from the property, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI).
The trooper was rushed to Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta and immediately taken into surgery, said officials. He was in stable condition as of Thursday, Georgia State Patrol said. The trooper’s identity has not yet been released.
On Friday, GBI released a photo of a handgun it said Teran was carrying at the time of the shooting. It said a ballistic analysis of the round which wounded the trooper was a match to Teran’s Smith & Wesson M&P Shield 9mm.
Activists have questioned officials’ version of events, calling it a “murder,” and demanding an independent investigation, according to the Associated Press. According to the GBI, the incident was not recorded on body cameras.
In December, five people were arrested and charged with domestic terrorism and other charges after allegedly throwing rocks and bottles at the training center, officials said. For months, protesters have allegedly destroyed property, committed arson and carjackings and thrown rocks, bottles and other items at police, GBI said.
“These are not acts of peaceful protest. These are criminal acts to destabilize communities and endanger citizens,” Michael Register, director of the GBI, said this week. The agency is investigating the recent trooper shooting.
For months, police have been sending officers to the site due to the high “threat of safety,” Register said.
In connection with Wednesday’s protest, seven people have so far been arrested on charges of domestic terrorism and criminal trespass, GBI said. According to the AP, they range in age from 20 to 34 years, and none are Georgia residents.
