Gun tied to trooper shooting purchased by protester who was killed in Atlanta

Teran was killed after several troopers returned fire.

Teran’s death has added fuel to an already tense environment surrounding the Atlanta Police Foundation’s plans to build a $90 million training facility in the southern DeKalb County woods. Six people were arrested Saturday, joining a growing list of activists charged with domestic terrorism after a protest in downtown Atlanta devolved into buildings being vandalized and a police car being set ablaze.

Vigils and rallies were also held in other cities across the country.

The GBI previously said that ballistics testing showed the gun found at the scene of Teran’s death fired the bullet that struck the trooper. But until Monday they had not revealed evidence directly tying the gun to Teran.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has requested copies of the transaction documents.

The agency’s latest statement, meanwhile, came as activists continue to raise questions about the official version of events.

With Teran described as a kind soul and proponent of nonviolent protest, some have suggested the weapon found near his body may have been planted. Each of the agencies involved in last week’s operation issue Glock firearms, not Smith & Wessons, to their officers.

Activists’ suspicions have also been heightened by the lack of body camera footage from the incident.

The operation that ultimately resulted in Teran’s death involved several law enforcement agencies, including the Atlanta and DeKalb County police departments. But authorities have said only state troopers — who generally are not equipped with body-worn cameras — were involved in the encounter with Teran.

Miles said Monday that “although the shooting is not captured on bodycam, there is bodycam footage of the aftermath.”

A GoFundMe account for Teran’s family, meanwhile, had raised more than $46,000 as of Monday afternoon.

And a group of doctors from Emory University issued its own statement condemning “the repeated escalation of police violence in their interactions with members of the public protesting the construction of Cop City.”

The group included Michel Koury and Amy Zeidan, co-directors of the Georgia Human Rights Clinic, as well as Mark Spencer (co-leader of the Internal Medicine Advocacy Group” and Suhaib Abaz (co-founder of the Campaign Against Racism, Atlanta chapter ).

“The public health evidence for developing healthy and thriving communities strongly opposes the expansion of policing and its subsequent violence,” their lengthy statement said, in part. “All Atlanta communities deserve more life affirming investments, not those that value private property over human life.”