Manuel Paez Terán, known as ‘Tortuguita’ was isolated and alone as police shot him dead – and his family and friends say the full story is being kept from them

Manuel Paez Terán’s last word was: “Help.” It wasn’t spoken; it was sent by text. From another location in the same forest where Paez Terán – or “Tortuguita”– was camping in a tent, someone texted back: “What do you need?”

Seconds later, Tortuguita – Spanish for “Little Turtle”– was dead. Six Georgia state patrol troopers shot Paez Terán with at least 14 bullets, leaving 57 wounds. The 26-year-old had been sleeping in tents and tree houses in a public park for months, along with dozens of other “forest defenders” in protest against a $90m police and fire department training center known as “Cop City”, planned for another part of the forest less than a mile away.