Georgia Tech Shooting Victim Made 911 Call to Police That Led to Death
Scout Schultz, the Georgia Tech student who was fatally shot Saturday night, was also the person behind a call to Georgia Tech campus police earlier that evening to report a suspicious person on campus.
According to a statement from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, Georgia Tech Police officers received a 911 call around 11:17 p.m. Saturday about a person described as a “white male, with long blond hair, white T-shirt and blue jeans who is possibly intoxicated, holding a knife and possibly armed with a gun on his hip.”
Officers encountered Schultz outside a dorm building in the well-lit entrance of a parking garage. In a cellphone video captured by an onlooker and obtained by CNN, at least two officers can be seen with their guns drawn as Schultz walks toward them.
“Come on, man, drop the knife,” one officer says. Another encourages Schultz, “Come on, let’s drop it.” (Investigators later found a multipurpose tool in Schultz’s dorm room, but no gun).
At that point in the video, Schultz shouts, “Shoot me!” to which the first officer replies, “No, drop the knife.” After several more back-and-forths, Schultz takes three steps toward the officers and is shot.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigations later found three suicide notes in Schultz’s dorm room. Schultz, who was a fourth-year computer engineering major with a minor in biomedical engineering, was also active on campus as the president of the Georgia Tech Pride Alliance, a student-led LGBTQ community.
In a profile on the group’s website, Schultz identified as nonbinary and intersex and preferred the pronouns they, them and their.
Schultz’s family attorney, L. Chris Stewart, said in a statement, “It’s tragic that as Scout was battling mental health issues that pushed them to the edge of desperation, their life was taken with a bullet rather than saved with non-lethal force.”
In a news conference following the shooting, CNN reports that Stewart added, “People have breakdowns sometimes. That doesn’t mean they deserve to die.”
Georgia Tech President G.P. “Bud” Peterson sent an email to the school community to reassure students that there would be “opportunities for dialogue” and “additional resources as needed for healing.”
“While this is a heart-wrenchingly painful time for the entire Georgia Tech community, it is important to know that all of us here at Georgia Tech are committed to providing a safe and healthy, living and learning environment for all of our students, faculty and staff,” he wrote.
A peaceful vigil was held in honor of Schultz Monday night, but a protest that took place immediately afterward led to three arrests and the burning of a police vehicle in the street.
Vincent Castillenti, Jacob Wilson and Cassandra Monden were arrested and charged with inciting a riot and battery of an officer, a university spokesman told the Miami Herald. The university has not specified whether the three individuals are students.