COLUMBUS, Ga. — Police at Georgia's Columbus State University fatally shot a man over the weekend after officers responded to a report of someone with a gun, authorities said. A lawyer for the man's family said Monday that the man was unarmed and a visitor on campus.
Zikarious Jaquan Flint, 20, died Sunday after receiving two gunshot wounds, Muscogee County Coroner Buddy Bryan said Monday.
Flint wasn't a student at the university and no one else was hurt in the shooting Sunday afternoon at the campus, located about 100 miles southwest of Atlanta near the Alabama state line.
University Police Chief Rus Drew said officers were called at 2:35 p.m. Sunday and arrived three minutes later to an area near some campus apartments and began pursuing a man on foot.
"There was a short foot chase and at some point the suspect turned and faced the officers and shots were fired," Drew said.
Bryan was quoted by local news media outlets as saying on Monday that Flint was shot twice from behind.
Stacey Jackson said he has been hired by Flint's family as a lawyer and spokesman. He told The Associated Press he went to the campus Sunday and spoke to three people who said they witnessed the shooting.
"All three witnesses were consistent in the fact that when Mr. Flint was shot, he did not have a weapon in his hand and, from what they witnessed, he was shot from behind," Jackson said by phone Monday. Drew told the Ledger-Enquirer of Columbus that a gun was recovered with the suspect.
