ATLANTA — The family of Manuel Esteban Paez Teran, the activist killed in January by Georgia State Patrol troopers during a clearing operation at the site of Atlanta’s planned public safety training center, on Monday released a private autopsy conducted after the DeKalb County coroner performed the initial examination for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
The family’s autopsy was limited because Teran’s body had largely been dissected during the first examination to retrieve bullet fragments from the 14 gunshot wounds.
The Teran family autopsy was performed by Dr. Kris L. Sperry, the GBI’s former chief medical examiner who in 2015 retired abruptly after an Atlanta Journal-Constitution investigation found he had claimed hundreds of work hours at the GBI when he actually was working for clients of his forensic-science consulting firm. The AJC found Sperry had taken on more than 500 cases as a paid forensic expert, and that his moonlighting had created conflicts of interest and undermined his scientific and medical judgment.
