By Ryan Fatica
Bartow County, GA — More than 3 ½ months after Georgia State Patrol agents killed forest defender Manuel ‘Tortuguita’ Esteban Paez Terán during a raid on the Weelaunee Forest, officials still refuse to name the officers responsible for their death or take any steps toward bringing them to justice.
Update: On May 15, two of the three arrested for allegedly flyering trooper Jonathan Salcedo’s neighborhood were granted $20,000 bond in a bail hearing before Bartow County Superior Court Judge Suzanne H. Smith, according to court reporting by the Atlanta Community Press Collective. Their bond conditions are reported to include no contact with anyone involved with the ‘Defend the Forest’ movement and no contact with the six state troopers implicated in Terán’s killing. The third arrestee was reportedly denied bond because Georgia Deputy State Attorney General John Fowler alleged that they had received reimbursements for protest-related expenses from the Forest Defense Fund and were being investigated for their alleged political affiliation with the ‘Defend The Forest’ movement.
After months of waiting, it appears that activists and community members have begun stepping up to provide transparency themselves.
In late April, researchers with the Atlanta Community Press Collective released the names of six Georgia State Patrol SWAT agents believed to be involved in Tortuguita’s killing. The officers’ names are Bryland Myers, Jerry Parrish, Jonathan Salcedo, Mark Lamb, Ronaldo Kegel, and Royce Zah. The Collective discovered the names after receiving a Georgia Bureau of Investigation Gun Shot Residue (GSR) report through a public records request to the DeKalb County Medical Examiner’s office.
On April 28, three people were arrested in Bartow County, Georgia for allegedly providing the public with information about the officers who killed Tortuguita at the neighborhood level. The three are accused of distributing fliers naming one of Tortuguita’s suspected killers, Jonathan Augusto Salcedo, who lives in a small bedroom community outside Cartersville called White, Georgia.
The three are charged with “Intimidate Law Enforcement officer/family in retaliation to discharge of duties by force,” a felony, and misdemeanor stalking. During a bond hearing before Bartow County Magistrate Judge Brandon Bryson on last Monday, all three were refused bond and will continue to be held in Bartow County Jail until their bond hearing in Superior Court.
The felony intimidation charge GA Code § 16-10-97 (2018) carries a sentence of up to 20 years in prison depending upon which section of the statute prosecutors plan to apply. The part of the statute that is specific to law enforcement officers carries a minimum sentence of one year and a maximum sentence of five years as well as a $5,000 fine. Warrants filed in the case do not specify which section they are applying.
The flier the trio are accused of distributing printed information informing neighbors that Salcedo had “murdered” Tortuguita, according to individuals familiar with its contents.
After the incident, Salcedo told prosecutors that he “felt harassed and intimidated by individuals handing out these fliers,” according to court documents.
In criminal arrest warrants filed in Bartow County Magistrate Court, prosecutors accused all three arrestees of “providing fliers in the neighborhood that Jonathan Sacledo [sic] on mailboxes [sic] that were claiming Jonathan was a murderer due to an incident that occurred in Atlanta.” (Salcedo’s name is misspelled by prosecutors throughout the warrant).
[Photo by Unicorn Riot]
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