Atlanta, Georgia - The parents of slain Weelaunee Forest Defender Tortuguita have filed a new lawsuit seeking accountability for the police killing of their child during protests against Atlanta's proposed Cop City.

Manuel Esteban Paez Terán, a 26-year-old Indigenous environmental activist and abolitionist known by friends and comrades as Tortuguita, was killed by law enforcement during a militarized raid at a Stop Cop City camp in January 2023.

Tortuguita and fellow activists had been calling for an end to plans to construct a $90-million police training facility in the Weelaunee Forest just outside the Atlanta city limits – a move they say will lead to an increase in police violence as well as environmental damage in the area.

Troopers claimed Tortuguita was wielding a gun and had fired at an officer during their raid, though body camera footage of the alleged attack was nowhere to be found.

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An autopsy revealed Tortuguita was sitting cross-legged with their hands up when they were shot 14 times. They had no traces of gunpowder on their hands.

Nevertheless, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation announced in October 2023 it would not bring charges against the cops responsible for Tortuguita's killing. Instead, over 61 peaceful protesters were charged with violating the state's Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act.

Now, Tortuguita's parents, Joel Paez and Belkis Terán, are fighting back with a new lawsuit which names three officers: the Georgia Bureau of Investigation's Ryan Long and the Georgia State Patrol's Mark Lamb and Bryland Myers.

The civil rights complaint accuses the officers of false arrest and excessive use of force, as well as retaliation against their child for exercising their First Amendment right to express their political beliefs.

Long is accused of planning the raid during which Lamb ordered Myers to fire pepper balls into Tortuguita's tent while they and other activists were camping legally on public land. The tent was reportedly filled with a chemical that impairs breathing and causes pain to the eyes, mouth, nose, and lungs.

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"Any person trapped inside a tent that is filled with oleoresin capsicum would reasonably believe that they were going to die," the lawsuit states, adding, "At the time Defendant Myers shot pepper balls into Manuel's tent, Manuel had not engaged in any crime."

Lamb and Myers were among the six troopers who allegedly fired their guns at Tortuguita, officials have said.