Relatives help authorities seeking UGA professor

ATHENS — Relatives of UGA professor George Zinkhan III, suspected of killing his wife and two men outside a local theater, have told the Associated Press they’re doing all they can to prevent any additional violence.

In a statement e-mailed to The Associated Press, Chris Zinkhan says the family has been in contact with Athens police detectives and the FBI.

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George M. Zinkhan III

ROBERT LOWERY / Lowery Studio

This portrait shows UGA professor George Zinkhan III and wife Marie Bruce in 2005.

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He says the family’s “thoughts and prayers are with the victims, their families and their friends.”

Zinkhan is wanted for shooting his wife Marie E. Bruce, 47, as well as Ben Teague, 63, and Thomas Cole Tanner, 40.

University of Georgia police patrolled the campus Monday with semiautomatic weapons as part of a stepped-up security effort in the wake of Saturday’s triple slaying at an Athens theater, chief Jimmy Williamson said.

Williamson said campus police are using two-officer foot patrols, with one of the two officers carrying an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle.

“I have no reason to believe they’ll need it but it doesn’t hurt to have that presence,” Williamson said.

Williamson said police believe the suspect Zinkhan III, a UGA marketing professor, has left the Athens area.

“Based on what we know we feel like he’s no longer local,” he said. “Based on what we’re seeing and the conclusions that are being made, we just don’t think he’s close by. They’ve already told you where they think he may be going. I think that’s a very safe assumption from the material that’s been found.”

UGA President Michael Adams, appearing with Williamson at a morning press conference, said, “This is clearly the kind of occurance we don’t expect in a location like this.

“Our primary focus is the safety and well being of the University of Georgia community.

“We will operate under a normal schedule…” Adams said. “However, we urge people to use caution until the suspect is apprehended.”

Adams said he knew Zinkhan “casually but not well.”

Federal authorities said Monday that Zinkhan has a ticket for a flight to the Netherlands for May 2 and they can’t find his passport.

Police say Zinkhan has a house in Amsterdam, where he teaches part-time.

In a federal court affidavit Monday, an FBI agent said officials have searched Zinkhan’s office and he hasn’t contacted family, friends or students.

Authorities say they found Zinkhan’s passport wallet, but the passport is missing.

Police in Athens said Monday they have few leads in the search.

At a press conference Monday morning at the scene of the shootings, Athens-Clarke County Police Capt. Clarence Holeman said police are hoping Zinkhan will “actually make a mistake or turn himself in that’s essentially right now what we’re hoping for because we haven’t gotten any tips on where the car may be, no sightings of him or anything like that.” Holeman said there is a possibility Zinkhan could have killed himself.

“The longer it takes to find him, the more that keeps coming up in my mind,” he said.

“If he’s alive and moving around, eventually we’ll find him,” Holeman said.

Holeman declined to say if there was evidence that the shootings were planned.

“One part of me tells me it wasn’t planned because he brought the kids down here with him and then took them to the neighbor’s house and asked them to watch them. If it was planned I think it would have been down just the opposite.”

Authorities say Zinkhan shot his wife and two men to death outside a theater near campus while his children remained in his red Jeep Liberty.

Police and witnesses say Zinkhan opened fire outside the Athens Community Theatre Saturday afternoon around 12:30 p.m. The off-campus community theater is home to the Town and Gown Players, an acting company of which all three shooting victims were members.

After the shooting Zinkhan returned to his Jeep, where he had left his 8-year-old son and 10-year-old daughter. He then drove them the 8 miles to neighbor Bob Covington’s house in Bogart.

He asked Covington to watch the kids because there was an emergency.

“He seemed hurried,” Covington said, but not in a way that raised suspicion.

When officers arrived, Covington’s wife went with the kids to the police station. There they were picked up by their uncle, Bruce’s brother, who told them what happened.

Covington lived next to Zinkhan and Bruce for eight years.

“He wasn’t a guy to start a conversation or to keep one going,” Covington said. “She’s more vivacious. She was the extrovert.”

Bruce built sets for the theater and did all the yardwork, Covington said, adding that Zinkhan spent most summers out of town by himself.

Other neighbors were shocked to learn the usually scruffy Zinkhan was a professor. They said he didn’t look like the guy in the widely circulated photo.

“I thought he was a landscaper,” said Renee Gillick, who lives two houses down.

Josh Gurley, a junior marketing major from Smyrna, was a student in Zinkhan’s Marketing 4000 class about consumer buying behavior.

Gurley said he last saw Zinkhan in class Thursday. He caught the students by surprise when he announced the final exam scheduled for next week was going to be optional for students who were satisfied with their current grade.

Zinkhan was “nice but really weird, kind of off,” Gurley said. “You could tell he was intelligent but he seemed somewhat awkward around people.”

Gurley said there was nothing out of the ordinary about Zinkhan Thursday.

Zinkhan, a professor in the Department of Marketing and Distribution, had taught two classes, one undergraduate and one graduate. The students will be contacted individually on the status of their courses, university spokesman Tom Jackson said.

Two other people who were wounded by ricochets have been released from the hospital. Their identities have not been released by police.

Beth Kozinsky, membership director, said the theater company was hosting a homecoming picnic lunch Saturday for current and former members. She and others watched Zinkhan walk over from a parking lot and shoot the first victim at close range.

“We were all in shock,”Kozinsky said.

Bruce, an attorney, and Tanner had been serving as officers with the theater company, and Teague had been involved for several years, she said. Tanner was starring in a production at the theater. Teague was married to Fran Teague, a UGA English professor.

Tanner, 40, was one of the lead actors in the Town and Gown Players’ play “Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure.” He was a professor at Clemson University, according to the Greenville News, serving as director of its Regional Dynamics and Economic Modeling Lab at the Strom Thurmond Institute of Government and Public Affairs. He had been at Clemson since July of 2007 after leaving UGA’s Carl Vinson Institute of Government.

Teague moved to Athens in 1977, according to his self-named site. An avid reader, Teague had a background in physics and worked as a translator, according to his site.

Bruce worked in the Athens law firm of attorney J. Hue Henry, who represented the late Jan Kemp in her highly publicized lawsuit vs. the university.

Holeman said an argument between the suspect, who was well known to the theater group, and an unidentified man immediately preceded the shootings.

According to Holeman, witnesses told police that Zinkhan left the event and returned a few minutes later with two handguns. He fired both guns, Holeman said, and afterward walked away, got in a car and drove off.