Gender Non-Binary Student Shot Dead By Georgia Tech Campus Police

This is a really messed up story….

According to this:

Georgia Tech police shot dead a barefoot student carrying a knife late on Saturday night.

 

The student, 21-year-old Scout Schultz, who identified as gender non-binary, was seen walking toward police – who issued several warnings to drop what officers believed was a knife.

 

The tense encounter was caught on camera – in which the student can be seen walking closer and closer to the police officers and shouting ‘shoot me.’

 

‘Nobody wants to hurt you,’ one of the officers can be heard saying.

Schultz was then shot once and immediately crumpled to the ground, screaming out in pain.

 

None of the police officers involved have been identified, and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation is currently looking into the shooting.

 

According to a press release from the bureau, the Georgia Tech campus police received a 911 call of a ‘person with a knife and a gun’ at 11.17pm Saturday night.

 

The release says Schultz was ‘not cooperative and would not comply with the officers commands.

 

‘Schultz continued to advance on the officers with a knife… Subsequently, one officer fired striking Schultz.’

There’s video, and it’s tough to watch.

I’m very, very confused by this. I guess I don’t understand what mindset you must be in to come at officers with a knife.

I also don’t know if it’s standard procedure to fatally shoot someone in this case. Is it? I ask this question in earnest. Is there a reason the police officers wouldn’t shoot him in the leg or something similar? You know… to debilitate but not kill? Again, I am not asking this to pass any judgement, but rather because I think some of you may have some info on this.

The story gets even more complicated, because I’m SURE people are going to turn this into a factor:

At Georgia Tech, Schultz was president of the school’s Pride Alliance, which is a student organization for LGBTQ students and allies.

 

Schultz preferred ‘they’ and ‘them’ gender pronouns and identified as bisexual, non-binary and intersex, their mother Lynne said

Schultz preferred ‘they’ and ‘them’ gender pronouns and identified as bisexual, non-binary and intersex, their mother Lynne said.

 

Schultz, born male, preferred ‘they’ and ‘them’ gender pronouns and identified as bisexual, non-binary and intersex, Lynne said.

 

Non-binary means the individual does not identify as male or female.

 

Their father, Bill, wrote about the shooting on Facebook and said Schultz had a ‘tiny knife.’

 

‘[Police] didn’t have to shoot [Scout] in the heart, but that’s what they did,’ he wrote.

 

The distraught parents are now considering legal options.

 

The Pride Alliance released a statement Sunday, calling Schultz a ‘driving force’ in the organization.

 

‘Scout always reminded us to think critically about the intersection of identities and how a multitude of factors play into one’s experience on Tech’s campus and beyond,’ the group said.

So many unanswered questions. Why did the student threaten police with a knife? Why didn’t he put it down when told to do so? Why did they shoot him in the heart?

The one thing that’s for sure is that his is all sad. I am deeply saddened for the families affected. Both the student’s family, and that of the officer who shot him will undoubtedly suffer.