Protesters In Atlanta Clash With Police Over Shooting Of Georgia Tech Student
By
Lisa Hagen |
NPR
Tuesday, September 19, 2017
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Protesters upset over the police shooting of a Georgia Tech student clashed with campus police Monday. Video footage shows an officer fire on the student, who was holding a multi-tool and telling police to shoot.
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Protesters upset over the police shooting of a Georgia Tech student clashed with campus police Monday. Video footage shows an officer fire on the student, who was telling police to shoot.
Transcript
ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
Investigators are trying to understand what happened on Saturday when a police officer shot and killed a 21-year-old Georgia Tech student. It led to a violent protest last night. Reporter Lisa Hagen from member station WABE reports.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: (Singing) I'll be there.
LISA HAGEN, BYLINE: Last night, about 300 people gathered on the Georgia Tech campus for a candlelight vigil. It was in memory of student Scout Schultz, shot dead on Saturday by a campus police officer. The event turned violent when a single protester jumped up on a parked police car.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED OFFICER #1: Stop resisting. Stop resisting. Get on the ground.
HAGEN: Georgia Tech officers began tackling demonstrators who'd surrounded their vehicles. The crowd was a mix of current and former students as well as others who knew Schultz from Atlanta's progressive activist circles. Student Sean Stevenson was among them.
SEAN STEVENSON: For the cops who work here to not know that someone who's yelling to shoot them has a problem and isn't looking to hurt anyone but is someone in crisis - to not recognize that I think is despicable.
HAGEN: Video of the shooting Saturday posted on social media shows Schultz stepping towards officers with a multi-tool that contained a small blade. You hear Schultz tell police to shoot.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
SCOUT SCHULTZ: (Shouting) Shoot me.
UNIDENTIFIED OFFICER #2: (Shouting) No. Drop the knife. Drop the knife.
HAGEN: Investigators say they later found suicide notes in Schultz's dorm room. And it was Schultz who'd called 911 to report a suspicious person.
NELLY MILES: Essentially describing someone who matched his own description.
HAGEN: That's Nellie Miles with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. A quick note - Scout was intersex and preferred to be identified using the pronouns they and them. Schultz's parents says the Georgia Tech senior had received counseling for depression after a suicide attempt two years ago, but they didn't know Scout was still struggling. Schultz's father, William, says he took his child back to school last month.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
WILLIAM SCHULTZ: And that's the last time I saw Scout.
HAGEN: He's one of many people asking why Georgia Tech Police don't carry Tasers and why Officer Tyler Beck, who shot Schultz, was not trained in crisis intervention.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
SCHULTZ: Whatever happened, it shouldn't have ended in a death.
HAGEN: Scout Schultz identified as intersex and was president of Georgia Tech's Pride Alliance. Before the disturbances began last night, some students at the vigil started shouting criticism of the school and its president, Bud Peterson.
UNIDENTIFIED STUDENT: Scout would've wanted people to speak up like this. So to Bud Peterson, give us better health care. Give us better access to bathrooms, gender-neutral bathrooms...
(APPLAUSE)
HAGEN: The administration has been issuing written statements since the weekend. But for some, there's frustration about how the school is engaging with the community. Jennifer Glass teaches earth sciences at Tech.
JENNIFER GLASS: So far, honestly, it feels as if it's kind of hush-hush. And you know, there's going to be lawsuits, and we can't really talk about it.
HAGEN: Georgia Tech has not responded to requests for an interview with a member of the administration or campus police. For NPR News, I'm Lisa Hagen in Atlanta.
(SOUNDBITE OF OLAFUR ARNALDS AND NILS FRAHM'S "00:26") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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