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.

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.”