Amid the ongoing fight to defend Atlanta’s South River Forest from the construction of a law enforcement training village, a beloved queer community organizer, Tortuguita, was shot and killed by police last Wednesday.
In August 2021, Atlanta’s government announced the construction of an 85-acre police training facility in the South River Forest, also known as the Weelaunee Forest, located just outside of the city. Protestors have nicknamed the development “Cop City,” and have decried its potential to militarize the police — plans reportedly include several gun ranges, models of city blocks to be used in training demonstrations, and more — and its environmental impact, given its location within one of Atlanta’s largest remaining green spaces and a poor, predominantly Black area. Accordingly, a diverse coalition of protesters have been organizing against the Cop City proposal for a year, including by occupying the forest in protest camps.
Tortuguita, an Indigenous Venezuelan who was also queer and nonbinary, was a forest defender who was killed during a SWAT operation to clear a protest camp, per The Appeal. In a statement to multiple media outlets, an anonymous forest defender stated that gunfire was heard Wednesday morning around 9 A.M. Authorities have claimed that Tortuguita was told by police to exit their tent, and that they were the first to shoot, injuring a Georgia State Patrol Trooper. Police reportedly shot back, killing the 26-year-old activist. Police say that there is no body camera footage of the encounter available, causing activists to question their version of events.
Tortuguita was vocally committed to nonviolence: “We get a lot of support from people who live here, and that’s important because we win through nonviolence,” they told the magazine Bitter Southerner in a December profile. “We’re not going to beat them at violence. But we can beat them in public opinion, in the courts even.”
A GoFundMe for the activist’s funeral costs states that Tortuguita was “always the biggest light in any room they entered.” The Atlanta Press Collective wrote that Tortuguita “spent their time between Atlanta, defending the forest from destruction and coordinating mutual aid for the movement and Florida where they helped build housing in low income communities hit hardest by the hurricane.”
“They were a trained medic, a loving partner, a dear friend, a brave soul, and so much more,” the statement reads.
People around the country hosted vigils for Tortuguita after they were killed, from Oakland to Miami to Madison, Wisconsin. The Atlanta Press Collective also published anonymous tributes to the activist, with multiple people lauding their commitment to the QTBIPOC community. “They loved all life and people — especially their qtpoc community — deeply,” one mourner wrote.
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