One of the big questions of the crackdown on the “Cop City” protests in Atlanta is what exactly happened to Manuel “Tortuguita” Esteban Paez Terán, possibly the first environmental activist ever killed by US police. After police in January raided the encampments of protesters who had spent nearly a year battling a $90 million police training center planned in what’s meant to be preserved forest, Terán was found dead, with law enforcement claiming Terán had fired a gun at them, forcing them to shoot back in self-defense.

But new evidence has challenged that narrative over the past month or so, with the results of the DeKalb County Medical Examiner’s autopsy of Terán released last week revealing their body had been riddled with at least fifty-seven gunshot wounds. The autopsy also revealed no gunpowder residue on Terán’s hands. While gunshot residue is absent on the shooter in a minority of cases and doesn’t by itself disprove the police’s claims, it casts further doubt on law enforcement’s version of events.

These doubts were already present after the March release of a second, independent autopsy report commissioned by Terán’s family. While making no conclusion about whether or not they were holding a firearm at any point, that autopsy did conclude Terán had likely been sitting cross-legged when they were shot, and that at some point they’d raised their arms up and in front of themself, palms facing their body, all of which clashed further with law enforcement’s version of events.