No suspect identified in shooting death of Georgia university student
By Rich McKay
ATLANTA (Reuters) - The fatal shooting of a student on the campus of Georgia's Savannah State University was under investigation on Friday, with no suspect yet identified a day after the confrontation that resulted in the man's death.
Christopher Starks, a junior from the Atlanta area, was shot during an "altercation" late on Thursday at the university's student union, the school said in a statement. He was transported to a hospital where he died of his injuries.
The shooting appeared to be "an isolated incident," the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said in a statement.
No suspect has been identified, said a spokesman for the agency, which is leading the investigation with assistance from campus police.
The historically black university is in the heart of Savannah, Georgia's oldest city, located on the Atlantic coast.
The incident, which prompted a two-hour lockdown as police swept the area for the shooter, came a day after two television journalists were killed by a gunman during a live broadcast in Virginia.
Students were planning a lunch-hour prayer vigil, the university said on its Twitter page.
"This is our brother. We will stand together to mourn his loss and uplift his life," the student government association said in a flyer posted to social media.
Nicknamed “Cooley,” Starks had been a rising football star at Appalachian State University in North Carolina in 2012 and 2013, before he was sidelined by an injury, university coach Scott Satterfield said in a statement.
At Appalachian, he was a wide receiver known for his speed. Starks majored in media broadcasting until he transferred to Savannah State in 2013, the statement noted.
He was a high-profile athlete at his Atlanta-area high schools, competing in track events as well as football, a former coach said.
“We’re all in shock here,” said Dwayne McKinney, his coach at Southwest DeKalb High School outside Atlanta, which he attended before his senior year. “He was a good kid. Such a good kid. He dreamed of playing for the NFL someday. He was that talented.”
He described Starks as a youth who was jovial and always smiling.
“He had friends in all the crowds, not just the student athletes,” McKinney said. “He was just a funny, generous kid.”
(Additional reporting by David Beasley in Atlanta; Writing by Letitia Stein; Editing by Mohammad Zargham)
