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Georgia Tech police shoot and kill LGBTQ student activist they say had a knife Georgia Tech police officer overreacted in shooting LGBTQ student, lawyer says
(about 3 hours later)
Campus police at a university in Georgia have shot and killed an LGBTQ student activist who they say was advancing on officers with a knife. A Georgia Tech police officer overreacted by firing a gunshot that killed an LGBTQ student activist who investigators say was armed with a knife and ignored commands to drop it, a lawyer for the family said on Monday.
Scout Schultz, 21, refused to put down a knife and kept moving toward the officers late on Sunday outside a dormitory at Georgia Tech, according to a statement from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. The police used the person’s given name of Scott, but the computer engineering student used the name Scout and preferred the pronouns “they” and “them” rather than “him” or “her”. Campus police killed Scout Schultz, 21, who they said was advancing on officers with a knife. Schultz refused to put down the knife and kept moving towards officers late on Saturday outside a dormitory, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) said in a statement.
“Officers provided multiple verbal commands and attempted to speak with Shultz who was not cooperative and would not comply with the officers’ commands,” the agency said in a statement. “Shultz continued to advance on the officers with the knife.”
Attorney Chris Stewart told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution he thought Schultz was having a mental breakdown and didn’t know what to do. Stewart and the student’s family planned a news conference on Monday morning.
WSB-TV reported that the item involved, still on the ground when its news crew arrived, appeared to be a “metal, flip-open, multi-tool knife”.
Authorities did not immediately identify the officer who shot Schultz or release the 911 call that led to the confrontation. Preliminary information indicates that the initial call reported a person with a knife and a gun about 11.17pm, the GBI said in a statement.
Georgia Tech on Monday refused to release the 911 call or any personnel or disciplinary reports involving the officers, saying that such information was exempt from Georgia’s open records law.
Schultz was president of Pride Alliance at Georgia Tech. The fourth-year computer engineering student used the name Scout and preferred the pronouns “they” and “them” rather than “him” or “her”.
“I’m bisexual, nonbinary and intersex,” Schultz wrote in a Pride Alliance profile.“I’m bisexual, nonbinary and intersex,” Schultz wrote in a Pride Alliance profile.
WSB-TV reported that the knife, which was still on the ground when reporters arrived, appeared to be a half-open multi-tool without any of the tools extended. Lynne Schultz told the Journal-Constitution that her oldest child was a brilliant student despite numerous medical issues including depression, and had twice attempted suicide. The computer engineering student attempted suicide two years ago using a belt as a noose, she said.
Chris Stewart, the Schultz family attorney, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution he thought Schultz “was having a mental breakdown and did not know what to do”. Stewart did not think Schultz was attempting “suicide by police” and said officers should have used non-lethal force. He added: “The area was secured. There was no one around at risk.” Most of Schultz’s stress was related to school, Lynne Schultz said. “Scout was always a perfectionist. They always worried they were going to fail a test but got all As and only two Bs at Tech.”
Stewart and the Shultz family planned a news conference on Monday morning. Many questions remained on Monday. GBI spokeswoman Nelly Miles said on Sunday she did not know whether the officer who fired at Schultz was trained in dealing with suspects who have mental disorders.
The GBI said officers tried repeatedly to get Schultz to drop the knife, but they refused to do so. The officer who opened fire has not been named. Shultz died in hospital. The GBI, through its Crisis Intervention Team, has trained about 10,000 local, state and federal law enforcement officers since it began in 2004, the Journal-Constitution reported. Atlanta, Roswell, Henry County and now DeKalb are among the agencies that require all of its officers to take the class. Some agencies do not require it.
Two students gave a TV station video footage of the incident in which officers can be heard repeatedly shouting, “Drop the knife!” Aaron Thurston told the station, “He was yelling, like, ‘Hey, shoot me!’” That could not be heard in the video footage. “Why didn’t they use some nonlethal force, like pepper spray or Tasers?” Lynne Schultz said.
“He took a couple more steps forward – it wasn’t a lunge, it was a couple more steps forward. And then the officer fired,” Thurston said. Police at the Georgia Institute of Technology do not carry Tasers or stun guns but are equipped with pepper spray, a Georgia Tech spokesman told the newspaper.
A statement from Georgia Tech on Monday said: “Our hearts and prayers go out to Scout’s family, friends and colleagues as we mourn Scout’s life and the unrealised potential of what could have been.” In May 2015, the University System of Georgia implemented a system-wide campus safety initiative. Among its recommendations: establish a program to review training needs for campus law enforcement at the state’s public colleges and universities. It set a 2016 timeline for establishing the program to identify gaps and develop necessary training programs.
Schultz’s mother, Lynne, told the station that her oldest child was a brilliant student despite contending with numerous medical issues, including depression, and that they had twice attempted suicide. The outcome of those recommendations wasn’t immediately known on Monday. A representative of the university system was looking into the matter.
Most of Schultz’s stress was related to school, their mother said.
“Scout was always a perfectionist,” Lynne Schultz said. “They always worried they were going to fail a test but got all As and only two Bs at Tech.”