"Why did you have to shoot?" Per the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, that's the big question Bill Schultz had Monday at a presser, addressing campus cops at Georgia Tech after his oldest child, 21-year-old Scout Schultz, was shot dead Saturday. Scout, who headed the school's Pride Alliance, was killed after four campus cops responded to a 911 call about someone armed with a weapon. Investigators say Schultz was nearing the cops and didn't comply when told to put down his knife, the AP reports. Per CBS News, a video shows a male officer fired after Schultz said, "Shoot me" and the officer replied, "No, drop the knife," only for Schultz to continue toward the police. Chris Stewart, the Schultzes' attorney, says Scout was holding a utility tool but the blade wasn't out. "They overreacted," Stewart tells the Journal-Constitution, adding Schultz seemed to be having a mental breakdown.
Schultz's parents agree, with Lynne Schultz telling the paper she didn't understand why nonlethal force, such as pepper spray or stun guns, wasn't used. Stewart, who says the Schultzes plan on filing a civil suit, said Monday he'd confirmed that campus police don't carry those less-lethal alternatives, which he called "insane," per CBS. Bill Schultz said Scout had a history of depression—the engineering student had attempted suicide two years ago—but had seemed OK recently and was doing well at Georgia Tech, with a 3.9 GPA and an early graduation date set for December. Lynne Schultz explains to the Journal-Constitution that Scout identified as nonbinary (neither male nor female) and was classified as intersex, having biological or physiological characteristics that are neither fully male nor female. "Why did you have to shoot?" Bill Schultz asked at the presser. "That's the only question that matters right now." (More Georgia Tech stories.)
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