Transgender activist and Georgia Tech Pride Alliance president Scout Schultz was shot and killed by a university officer early Sunday morning-and now, two videos have emerged capturing the activist’s interactions with police.
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According to WXIA, attorney Chris Stewart, representing Schultz’s family, is wondering why authorities didn’t de-escalate the situation by non-lethal measures.
“Why didn’t they use some nonlethal force, like pepper spray or Tasers?”
On Monday, following a vigil that was held in memory of the student, Scout Schultz, a gathering of at least 50 demonstrators turned violent as police responded.
Shortly after 11pm on Saturday, a call was made to campus police about a person with a knife and gun. Video posted on social media showed a police vehicle burning in the street and officers pinning people to the ground. He can be heard yelling “shoot me” to the officers who urged him to drop the knife.
“No, drop the knife”, the male officer says. When Schultz advances toward the officers, an officer fires a fatal shot. “And then the officer fired”, Thurston said.
Investigators recovered a multi-purpose tool that included a knife at the scene but didn’t find any guns, Ms Miles said.
Stewart claimed that Scout was holding a utility tool with the knife blade retracted. Schultz does not comply with officers’ orders.
Schultz was the president of the Georgia Tech Pride Alliance, an LGBT group on campus. Scout, who was gender nonbinary and preferred not to be identified with masculine pronouns, had attempted suicide two years previously.
The student from Lilburn, Georgia, was studying engineering and had plans to go to grad school and eventually have a career in making biomedical devices.
Footage of the incident shows Schultz walking toward police officers and shouting ‘Shoot me!’.
The Georgia Tech Progressive Student Alliance wrote on Facebook, saying: “We are distraught over the loss of Scout Schultz”. Georgia Tech Police arrested three people and charged them with inciting a riot and battery of an officer, he added, but could not confirm if those arrested were students.
As allegations of excessive force mounted, Stewart accused Georgia Tech of forcing the narrative that Schultz was a “knife-wielding” threat despite evidence suggesting otherwise.
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William Schultz said Scout was at Georgia Tech with a full scholarship.
