FBI widens search for professor accused in shooting deaths

George M. Zinkhan has not been seen since the shootings near campus Saturday, and law enforcement agencies nationwide have been enlisted in the search for the marketing professor, authorities said.

Gunfire erupted at a midday gathering of a local theater group at the Athens Community Theater. Killed were George Zinkhan's wife, 47-year-old attorney Marie Bruce, and two other members of the theater group, Ben Teague, 63, and Tom Tanner, 40. Zinkhan, 57, disappeared after the shootings in a red Jeep Liberty. Authorities say they don't know what motivated the shootings.

As classes resumed yesterday on the campus where Zinkhan had taught since the 1990s, the university said he had been fired. As a precaution, university police carried assault rifles as they patrolled on foot, but University Police Chief Jimmy Williamson said investigators believe Zinkhan had left Athens, 70 miles east of Atlanta.

Zinkhan had a voracious intellect, often reading through the night, said Warren French, a professor of business ethics and Zinkhan's longtime friend. Zinkhan succeeded him as head of the school's marketing department in 1994 and held the job for six years. "As department head, he caught the flak you normally get from faculty members and students. He never lost his temper," French said. "This is so out of character."