Campus Police Fatally Shoot Young Man in Columbus State University Chase
Campus police at Georgia's Columbus State University fatally shot 20-year-old Zikarious Jaquan Flint on Sunday afternoon. Flint was alleged to have been seen loading a gun outside of a campus apartment complex, but reports are unclear on whether he actually had a gun, while being chased by police or at all.
Update, 3 p.m.: I asked Bill Sutley, CSU's associate director of university relations, whether Flint had a gun. "He was sighted loading a gun and a gun was found on him or near him," said Sutley, who was unable to comment further.
From the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer:
CSU spokesman John Lester said campus police at 2:35 p.m. were told a man at the Courtyard 1 North apartment complex was putting bullets into a gun, and officers confronted the suspect minutes later.
They chased him to where he turned the corner of a building, faced the officers and raised his arm, so they shot him, Lester said.
But according to the Flint family, three witnesses said they saw Zikarious running away from the police when he was shot. And none of the witnesses reported seeing a weapon in his hands.
Stacey Jackson, an attorney for the Flint family, said Zikarious was shot twice, once in the back (with an exit wound on the stomach) and another time in the jaw area. He was declared dead Sunday afternoon by the Muscogee County Coroner's Office. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation has been called in to investigate the shooting.
A statement put out by CSU says Flint was not a student, and it also asserts that he had a gun.
On the college's Facebook page, updated with the news Sunday evening, multiple students expressed outrage that they hadn't been alerted earlier about the shooting. "This is the second shooting that has happened on campus without the students being notified," commented Christopher Whitlock. "It's a big safety concern."
