Georgia Tech student killed by officer called 911 before encounter

ATLANTA – A Georgia Tech student who was fatally shot by campus police had called 911 to report a suspicious armed and possibly drunk person matching his physical description.

Campus police killed Scout Schultz, 21, who they said was advancing on officers with a knife. Schultz refused to drop the knife and continued to walk toward officers Saturday evening, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said in a statement.

“The officers gave several verbal commands and attempted to speak with (Schultz), who was uncooperative and unwilling to comply with the officers’ commands,” the agency said in a statement. Schultz “continued to advance on the officers with the knife.”

Investigators determined that Schultz was the one who called Georgia Tech police to report a suspicious person on campus, GBI spokeswoman Nelly Miles said in an emailed statement Monday.

“In the call, Shultz describes the person as a white male, with long blond hair, a white T-shirt and blue jeans, possibly intoxicated, holding a knife and possibly armed with a gun on his hip,” Miles said, adding that three suicide notes were found in Schultz’s dorm room.

Investigators recovered a multi-tool at the scene that included a knife, but did not find a firearm, Miles said.

Chris Stewart, the attorney for Schultz’s parents, said Monday that the GBI confirmed to him that the tool’s blade did not come out. Flanked by Schultz’s parents earlier Monday, Stewart said the officer who shot Schultz overreacted.

Schultz was depressed and suicidal, but if the officer had used non-lethal force rather than shooting, Schultz could have received treatment and gotten better, Stewart said.

“Mental ill people are looking for a way out when they’re in the middle of depression, and there’s no way you should be able to use a police officer to kill yourself if that person isn’t in danger,” Stewart said.

Stewart says he plans to sue over the shooting.

Authorities have not identified the officer who shot Schultz, nor have they released audio of the 911 call, which came in around 11:17 p.m. Saturday, according to the GBI.

Georgia Tech declined Monday to release personnel or disciplinary reports involving the officers, saying such information was exempt from Georgia’s open records law.

Schultz was president of the Pride Alliance at Georgia Tech. The fourth-year computer engineering student used the name Scout, rather than the first name Scott, and preferred the pronouns “they” and “them” rather than “he” or “him.”

“I am bisexual, non-binary, and intersex,” Schultz wrote in a Pride Alliance profile.

William Schultz told reporters Monday that his child has a 3.9 GPA and is on track to graduate in early December.

Lynne Schultz told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution this weekend that her oldest child struggled with depression and attempted suicide two years ago using a belt as a noose.

After that, Scout Schultz underwent counseling, William Schultz said. After working the previous two summers, Scout Schultz spent last summer at home, and there were no obvious problems when school started again last month, the elder Schultz said.

Miles said Sunday she did not know whether the officer who shot Schultz was trained to deal with mentally ill suspects.

The GBI, through its Crisis Response Team, has trained about 10,000 local, state and federal law enforcement officers since its start in 2004, the newspaper reported. Atlanta. Some agencies require this training, others do not.

Georgia Tech police do not carry stun guns but are equipped with pepper spray, a spokesperson told the newspaper.

Stewart, the family’s attorney, said the university failed by not providing stun guns to its officers. He also said university police officers “should have the highest possible training to deal with people suffering from depression and mental or emotional problems.”

Referring to a video of the incident, Stewart said the lead officer was doing a “phenomenal job” of handling the situation – retreating, trying to de-escalate and putting a barrier between himself and Schultz – and that other officers seemed also provide appropriate services. backup. But an officer behaved inappropriately by shooting Schultz when there was no immediate danger to any of the officers, Stewart said.

William Schultz said he and his wife were counting on Stewart’s investigation to determine what happened, but that he was confident the encounter should not have ended in the death of his child.

If he had a chance to talk to the officer, he told reporters, he would have only one question: “Why did you have to shoot? That’s the question. I mean , that’s the only question that matters right now. Why did you kill my son?”