Stray bullet kills student on Atlanta campus
ATLANTA - One of the nation’s largest historically black academic centers mourned the death yesterday of a 19-year-old student hit by a stray bullet as she walked on campus with friends just after midnight.
Police said Jasmine Lynn of Kansas City, Mo., was struck in the chest when at least six shots were fired during a fight at Clark Atlanta University, one of four adjoining campuses that together make up the Atlanta University Center. Lynn was a student at one of the schools, Spelman College.
Jerome Jones, 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.
“One of the friends actually heard the gunshots, actually saw the weapon, and told her to get on the ground,’’ said Lieutenant Keith Meadows of the Atlanta police. “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.
College officials and police are unsure whether students from Clark Atlanta, Spelman, or neighboring Morehouse College were involved in the fight that led to the shooting. Morehouse College of Medicine is the fourth school in the complex.
Police were questioning witnesses and talking with a “person of interest,’’ Meadows said. For now, police are looking for one suspect, though investigators have not ruled out the possibility of more than that, Meadows said.
Hours after the crime scene tape was cleared from the street outside several Clark Atlanta dorms, students hurried across the campus complex in a morning rain.
An impromptu memorial service was held at Sisters Chapel on the Spelman campus, where students cried and held one another as president Beverly Tatum addressed them.
“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 to the tearful students.
