Protest At Georgia Tech After Student Killed By Police

Protesters gathered at Georgia Tech campus Friday afternoon in remembrance of student Scout Schultz, who was killed in a police shooting last Sunday.

"Scout lived a big, important life that connected Georgia Tech to the rest of Atlanta and understand that their loss affects the broader community," said Nikola Garcia, a Georgia Tech student who knew Schultz.

The engineering student, 21, was an LGBT activist. She was killed after a strange set of events.

Before the encounter, she made a 911 call about a suspicious man on campus. She described a drunk white man with long blond hair, wearing a white T-shirt and blue jeans, holding a knife and possibly a gun too.

Police arrived the scene and encountered Schultz holding a knife. In a video of the incident filmed by a fellow student Schultz can be heard saying "Shoot me!" while walking towards the officers.

"Drop the knife, man, come on," a police officer responds.

"Nobody wants to hurt you," another says, before one officer eventually opens fire, hitting Schultz in the chest.

According to investigators, the student did not appear to be holding a gun.

Schultz's mother Lynne said Scout suffered from depression and had attempted suicide two years ago.

"Why didn't they [police] use some nonlethal force, like pepper spray or Tasers?" she told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

A lawyer for Schultz's parents, Chris Stewart, said people can "breakdown" but that "doesn't mean they deserve to die."

Stewart blamed the officer's bad judgement for the killing: “[The officer] decided to shoot Scout in the heart because they either weren’t trained or they lost patience. They definitely were not in any immediate threat for their life or their safety.”

"I just don't understand how they couldn't have Tasers," Mr Stewart said.

Georgia Tech said it was "deeply saddened" by what had happened.