Atlanta police released bodycam footage that shows officers clearing out part of the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center. The words captured on the video are more informative than the visual information seen on the four videos released by the Atlanta Police Department.
The first video in the Fox 5 Atlanta report is of a news program and is about two and one-half minutes in duration. This brief video is an excellent summary of events and of the four videos that follow in the Fox 5 Atlanta reporting.
In the news cast brief video, police cautiously walk through terrain of small trees not thickly growing near each other. A voice, later identified as an Atlanta Police Officer, yells “I see movement in the red tent.” The officer then identifies himself: “this is the Atlanta Police Department Please step out of the tent.” The Fox news narrator cuts in and informs that “several of these people have been living in the tents for more than one year.”
The police cut open a green tent and find a backpack containing tools and a torch with fuel tank. As indicated by the time stamps on the video, about 15 minutes later, many gun shots are heard, perhaps as many as thirty gun shots. Based on the sounds, the shots were fired from more than one weapon. The people doing the shooting are not seen in this video.
As reported and as heard on the audio, “four consecutive shots could be heard in the video being fired followed by a slit-second pause, and then a barrage of bullets of different calibers could be heard being fired. The timestamp in the upper right hand corner of the videos showed 9:01:20 when the shooting started. Not everyone in the large law enforcement task force immediately knew what happened due to the thick brush. The body cameras pick up the radio transmission during the operation.”
“At least one of those bullets was fired from a Smith & Wesson M&P Shield 9mm legally purchased by 26-year-old Manuel Esteban Paez Teran,” as reported by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.” The report elaborated: “Forensic evidence suggests one of the bullets fired from the gun ended up wounding a trooper in the “pelvic-area.” The trooper was wearing a bullet-proof vest.”
At minute mark 1:41 into the news show video, confirmation is made that an officer is down. An All-Terrain Vehicle (ATV) is brought to the location of the wounded patrolman, who is not identified. Police are heard organizing the evacuation of the wounded officer. Minutes later it is determined that the shooting suspect, later identified as Manuel Teran, had been killed. An officer is heard stating: “I assume he is 48,” at which moment the news anchor speaks and informs that ‘48’ “is the code for a dead person.”
As reported, authorities say “this audio captures the shooting between Georgia State Patrol and protestor Manuel Teran. Note: The Georgia State Patrol does not wear body cameras and does not visually show the shooting. This video was captured by the Atlanta Police Department.”
Video 1 is about 33 minutes in duration; Video 2 is about 22 minutes in duration; Video 3 is 39 minutes in duration; and Video 4 is about 22 minutes in duration. In Video 3, officers cautiously approaching the above-referred green tent are seen moving through the stand of less-than-dense tree growth. The recordings from the officer-worn cameras do not show the actual shooting event. The Georgia State Patrol (GSP) and the Atlanta Police Department “hope the videos do offer some insight into what happened that day.”
