The family of late Georgia tech student Scout Schultz and their attorney blasted the university during a press conference Monday.
An officer with the Georgia Tech Police Department shot and killed Schultz outside a student dormitory. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation said campus authorities got a 911 call late Saturday night about someone with a knife and a gun. Officers arrived at the scene, and found an individual with what they described as a knife. They told the person to put down the blade. The person, identified as Schultz, didn’t comply.
“Shultz [sic] continued to advance on the officers with the knife,” the GBI said. “Subsequently, one officer fired striking Shultz.”
Joined by the student’s parents William and Lynne Schultz, Attorney L. Chris Stewart tried to puncture the official narrative during Monday’s press conference. He said cops used disproportionate force to subdue Schultz, who was having a mental breakdown. The student had a “multi-purpose tool” with items like pliers and a short knife, not a long-bladed knife.
“This is what he had that day,” Stewart said. “That’s what Georgia Tech didn’t tell you.” The lawyer argued that the actual blade on the tool wasn’t extended. Stewart said that according to surveillance, Schultz didn’t threaten officers with a knife, and didn’t run at them. “He was shot, walking slowly.” He said that though most cops at the scene did a great job, trying to deescalate the situation, he suggested one cop opened fire because “they weren’t trained, or lost patience.”
As to the news that Georgia tech was thinking about arming their officers with tasers, Stewart said “It’s a little too late.”
“Why did you have to shoot ? That’s the question,” William Schultz later said, addressing the officer who opening. “That’s the only question that matters right now. Why did you kill my son?”
Scout Schultz, who went by the pronoun “they” and did not identify as male or female, was president of Georgia Tech Pride Alliance, a student group for LGBTQIA rights.
Once the probe is over, the GBI, who is investigating this incident upon request by campus police, will turn over the case to the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office for review. The cop who opened fire has not been identified.
[Screengrab via WSB-TV]