‘Cop City’ activist’s official autopsy reveals more than 50 bullet wounds

Patrick Bailey, director of the DeKalb county medical examiner's office, told the Guardian that the county forwarded evidence to the GBI for them to perform the GSR kit, or gunshot residue test.

"I tried to read the whole thing - in the end it was a little too much," said Daniel Paez, Manuel's older brother, reached at his home in Texas. "The very fact that they're talking about Manny, and how they died - I didn't even want to share it with our mother, since the pain of losing Manny continues to haunt us; it doesn't seem to get better."

In a 16 March story revealing that the county had not released its report even as the family's attorneys had already completed a second autopsy, Bailey told the Guardian that an "internal review" needed to be completed before the report could be released. The document released on Wednesday was signed by Dr Gowitt on 14 March; Bailey said on Thursday that it took five weeks for his office's review, together with meetings with the GBI and with the family's attorneys.

The city filed a motion to dismiss the suit on Monday, claiming the suit "ignores established Georgia law showing that the City cannot be compelled to turn over public records related to a pending law enforcement investigation". In a move showing the importance of the ongoing case to all levels of government in Georgia, the state attorney general, Chris Carr, submitted an amicus curiae brief on Wednesday in support of the city's motion.

The 18 January raid was coordinated by the GBI, leading Daniel Paez to ask on Thursday: "How on earth do they get to be the ones to investigate? It's a quote-unquote independent investigation, without any oversight."

Paez also noted that his sibling was not killed immediately, and that a gunshot wound to the head probably caused their death, according to the county's report. "That made me imagine what could have happened. Could he have survived if not shot to the head? Did they look at him before shooting him?"