‘Sadness in the whole forest’: family of Cop City activist killed by police seeks answers

On a Thursday around noon last month, Joel Paez heard a knock on the door at his house in Chicago. Paez, who works from home managing a domestic violence intervention program, opened the door to see an officer from the Chicago police department.

The officer asked Paez if he had a relative in Atlanta. Surprised, the Venezuelan-born social worker said, "Yes. My son." The officer took out a pad, wrote down a phone number from Georgia, ripped out the sheet of paper and handed it to Paez. "Call this number, please," the officer said. Then he pointed to the body cam on his chest, and said: "This is being recorded." And he left.

The activist, who went by the name Tortuguita, was one of dozens trying to protect the South River Forest from a $90m (£75m), 85-acre (34-hectare) police and fire department training center planned for the site and, separately, a private developer's land swap. The project is known as Cop City. Officials said Tortuguita fired at a Georgia state patrol trooper first, wounding the officer.

The death - and the broader fight over Cop City - have drawn interest from around the US and all over the world. Now Tortuguita's family is demanding answers to the many questions they have about the shooting and the circumstances around it, not least the lack of body-cam footage.

On Thursday night in Atlanta, Paez said: "They didn't use body cams when they killed my son - but they did use them when they came to inform me about killing my son."

Paez was referring to what is probably the biggest obstacle facing the family and others when it comes to discovering what happened on the morning of 18 January, when dozens of officers from multiple city, county, state and possibly federal agencies swarmed the forest. There is no body-cam recording of the shooting, according to the Georgia bureau of investigation (GBI), which took part in the sweep and is also tasked with investigating Tortuguita's death.

At a press conference the family held in front of a historic courthouse in Decatur, flanked by their attorneys, Paez recounted how he would counsel Manuel to "get a life and have a family", and that they would "agree to disagree" about Manuel's involvement in projects such as defending the forest or helping to rebuild houses after Hurricane Nicole swept through in Florida. "I would say, 'Manuel, you cannot worry about the whole world. You're not Greta Thunberg.' I was wrong," Paez said.

But while there is no footage of the shooting, police videos of other parts of the operation to clear the forest were released on Wednesday night. Yet, activists say, these videos pose more questions for the police. They include the sounds of the actual shooting, with dozens of shots fired in quick succession, leading one officer in a nearby location to say: "Is this target practice?"

Paez said that the police videos were like "having three pieces in a puzzle of 1,000 pieces. What am I going to do with those three pieces?"

She picked up several stones and put them in her pocket, because that was something her son had done since they were a child.

Once Paez, Manuel's brother Daniel, and in-laws and friends had arrived in Atlanta, the family experienced several false starts in attempting to locate where Tortuguita had been camping the morning they were killed. Finally, on Tuesday, the family found the site, a gathering of several tents with food, books, and medical and other supplies on tables between them.

Members of the family came over. Paez and Daniel each touched and stared at objects belonging to Tortuguita - T-shirts, boots, a shovel, a pickax - as if seeking answers to what had happened under the tarp.

After a few moments, Paez closed the suitcase, stood it up and beckoned the small group to gather in a circle and pray.