ATLANTA (AP) — Tortuguita’s cautious voice rang out from a platform amid the tall pines the first time Vienna met them: “Who goes there?”
Vienna quickly identified herself, and Tortuguita’s watchfulness melted into the bubbly, curious, funny persona so many in the forest knew.
She and Tortuguita quickly fell in love during those warm, late summer days.
Before a Jan. 18 police operation that ended in gunfire , leaving 26-year-old Tortuguita dead and a state trooper hospitalized, shot in the abdomen.
Officials have said officers fired in self-defense after Tortuguita, whose given name was Manuel Esteban Paez Terán, shot the trooper.
Outrage over the events has galvanized leftists around the world, with vigils from Seattle to Chicago to London to Lützerath, Germany.
The GBI said Tortuguita was inside a tent and did not comply with officers’ commands prior to firing at authorities. »