A knife-wielding Georgia Tech student and LGBTQ activist was fatally shot by campus police on Saturday night, in an incident that was captured on video by a witness.
Twenty-one-year-old Scout Schultz, who identified as neither male nor female, was shot after refusing to comply with officers’ instructions to drop the weapon, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GIB).
The confrontation began when campus police responded to a 911 call about a person armed with a knife and a gun. Officers arrived to find Schultz outside a student dormitory.
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Video shows officers repeatedly asking Schultz to drop the knife, but the student continues advancing towards one of them, and is heard yelling, “Shoot me!”
The officer is seen backing up and imploring, “Nobody wants to hurt you man, drop the knife.” Schultz then changes direction and moves towards another officer, who exclaims, “Do not move!”
A gunshot is heard a few seconds later, after Schultz is seen taking a few more steps towards the officer.
The computer engineering student died in hospital, the GBI said in a statement. No officers were injured during the incident.
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Georgia Tech’s Pride Alliance took to Facebook to laud Schultz as a “driving force” behind their group.
“They have been the driving force behind Pride Alliance for the past two years… their leadership allowed us to create change across campus and in the Atlanta community,” the post said.
A profile of Schultz on the Pride Alliance’s website states that the Lilburn, Ga. native preferred to be addressed via gender-neutral “they/them” pronouns.
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“I have a minor in biomedical engineering and am planning on working on medical devices. I’m bisexual, nonbinary and intersex,” Schultz’s profile says.
Schultz’s mother Lynne told the New York Daily News that her child was “nonconformist and very, very bright,” and said she was unable to explain the incident. “They seemed fine, friends said they seemed fine… I don’t know,” she said.
A memorial for Schultz planned for Monday evening had around 170 RSVPs.
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