Atlanta protest towards taking pictures demise of activist briefly turns violent

By Cheney Orr

ATLANTA (Reuters) – A protest in Atlanta briefly turned violent on Saturday as demonstrators set a police automotive on hearth and smashed home windows of buildings.

Marchers had gathered to protest the killing of an activist by regulation enforcement on Wednesday throughout a raid to clear the development web site of a public security coaching facility that activists have derided with the nickname “Cop Metropolis”.

The demonstration began peacefully, then abruptly escalated with some protesters throwing fireworks and rocks and smashing buildings’ home windows with hammers, in accordance with a Reuters witness.

As police moved on the marchers, the violence rapidly fizzled with out anybody injured. A Reuters photographer noticed a protester who was carrying a banner being handcuffed by regulation enforcement.

The demonstrators had been protesting an incident that occurred on Wednesday, when Manuel Teran, 26, was inside a tent and didn’t adjust to officers’ “verbal instructions” as regulation enforcement cleared Weelaunee Folks’s Park. Some activists had been tenting there since final 12 months to protest the power.

Based on the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI), Teran shot a state trooper and was shot and killed by officers returning hearth.

On Friday, GBI launched a photograph of a handgun police say was in Teran’s possession on the time of the taking pictures.

Opponents of the $90 million undertaking south of Atlanta, which might be constructed by the Atlanta Police Basis, say constructing it could result in destruction of tons of of acres of forest and enormously harm the setting.

(Reporting by Cheney Orr in Atlanta, writing by Maria Caspani, Modifying by David Gregorio)