‘Assassinated in cold blood’: the man killed protesting Georgia’s ‘Cop City’

Killing of Manuel Esteban Paez Terán, who opposed training facility, is ‘unprecedented’ in history of environmental activism, experts say

Belkis Terán spoke with her son, Manuel, nearly every day by WhatsApp from her home in Panama City, Panama. She also had names and numbers for some of Manuel’s friends, in case she didn’t hear from the 26-year-old who was protesting “Cop City”, a planned gigantic training facility being built in a wooded area near Atlanta, Georgia.

So by midweek, when she hadn’t received a message from Atlanta since Monday, she began to worry. Thursday around noon, a friend of Manuel’s messaged her with condolences. “I’m so sorry,” they wrote. “For what?” she asked.