Stray bullet kills college student on Ga. campus

ATLANTA — A 19-year-old college student walking on campus with friends was struck and killed by a stray bullet early Thursday at Clark Atlanta University, police said.

Jasmine Lynn, of Kansas City, Mo., was struck in the chest when shots were fired during a fight nearby. A Clark Atlanta student who was with Lynn was hit by a bullet on the wrist and was treated at a hospital and released, police said.

Lynn was a student at neighboring Spelman College, part of the historically black Atlanta University Center.

“One of the friends actually heard the gunshots, actually saw the weapon and told her to get on the ground,” Atlanta Police Lt. Keith Meadows said. “As she was getting on the ground, she got shot in the chest.” Meadows said Lynn was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital, where she died.

Meadows said officers believe only one gun was fired, but that it was fired at least six times. He said there may be more than one suspect.

He said police were interviewing someone they considered a possible witness, not a suspect.

Police said security cameras probably captured the gunfire but that they do not yet have a clear description of the shooter.

Hours later, students hurried across the campus complex in a morning rain.

Achanti Perine, 19, a junior public relations major at Clark Atlanta from Prince George’s County, Md., was walking to class, as she usually does, near the scene of the shooting. She said she had not heard about the killing.

“We all are aware of what goes on around this campus, so I’m not surprised,” she said of the neighborhood. “That’s too close to home.”

At a memorial service at Spelman’s chapel, college president Beverly Daniel Tatum said she had spoken with Lynn’s mother and grandmother. “They are devastated,” Tatum said.

“I know this is very unsettling for all of us. But this is the kind of horrible incident that could have happened anywhere,” Tatum said.

Students cried and held each other at the service. One had to leave because she was crying so hard.

An administrator said the chapel would be left open for students to use as needed and that grief counseling sessions that started Thursday morning will continue.

Campus officials said they will hold a series of town hall meetings on Thursday for faculty, staff and students to give updates and discuss campus safety.

Clark Atlanta, Spelman, Morehouse College and the Morehouse School of Medicine make up the Atlanta University Center. The historically black colleges are next door to each other in a southwest Atlanta neighborhood. The campuses are so close it’s often hard to tell where one ends and another begins.

Students commonly cross between schools to visit each other and can take courses on each other’s campuses.