A police officer fatally shot a barefoot, gender-bending Georgia Tech student on campus, according to police and shocking video footage.
Scout Schultz, 21, who identified as gender non-binary, was shoeless and carrying a small knife when the officer opened fire around 11:20 p.m. Saturday, sources told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The video shows Schultz, of Lilburn, shouting “Shoot me!” in a parking lot while walking toward the officer, who warns the student to stop and drop the weapon.
“Nobody wants to hurt you,” one of the officers can be heard saying.
Schultz continues to walk toward the officer, who shoots the student once. Schultz then falls to the ground and screams in pain, the video shows.
The campus cops first got a call reporting a “person with a knife and a gun” around 11:17 p.m., according to a press release from the Georgia Tech Police Department.
“Schultz continued to advance on the officers with a knife … Subsequently, one officer fired striking Schultz,” it states. Schultz was “not cooperative and would not comply with the officers’ commands,” it states.
Schultz’s heartbroken mom, Lynne Schultz, was baffled by the tragedy, she told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Sunday.
“Why didn’t they use some nonlethal force, like pepper spray or Tasers?” she said, according to the paper.
She added, “I think (Scout) was having a mental breakdown and didn’t know what to do … The area was secured. There was no one around at risk.”
Scout identified as gender non-binary, she said.
None of the police officers involved had been identified Sunday.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is looking into the shooting.