PROTESTS in downtown Atlanta against the police killing of an environmental activist last week led to violent clashes on Saturday night.

Authorities claim that masked, black-clad activists threw rocks and lit fireworks in front of a skyscraper that houses the Atlanta Police Foundation, shattering large glass windows. 

They are then said to have set fire to a police cruiser, smashed more windows and vandalised walls with anti-police graffiti.

Hundreds of demonstrators had gathered and marched up Atlanta’s famed Peachtree Street to mourn the death of the protester, a nonbinary person who went by the name Tortuguita.

Tortuguita was killed on Wednesday as authorities cleared a small group of protesters from the site of a planned Atlanta-area public safety training centre that activists have dubbed “Cop City.”

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) said Tortuguita was killed by officers after shooting and wounding a state trooper, but activists have questioned officials’ version of events, calling it a “murder” and demanding an independent investigation.

According to the GBI, the incident was not recorded on body cameras. 

Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum said during a news conference that authorities made six arrests on Saturday and had recovered explosive devices. 

He said no citizens or law enforcement officers were injured.

The demonstration had been peaceful as speakers at the rally said Tortuguita had undergone a 20-hour medic course in order to support fellow “forest defenders” who had made their home in the DeKalb County woods just outside Atlanta city limits.

Opponents of the controversial training centre say the $90 million (£73m) project, which would be built by the Atlanta Police Foundation, involves cutting down so many trees that it would be environmentally damaging. 

They also oppose spending so much money on a facility they say will be used to practice “urban warfare.”