Timeline: What happened in Athens

The Town and Gown Players are having a picnic lunch for current and former members Saturday afternoon at the Athens Community Theater near downtown.

Earlier, George Zinkhan III, a University of Georgia marketing professor and a familiar face to the theater group, argues with an unidentified man before leaving the luncheon.

What happens afterward is based on reports from witnesses and law enforcement authorities:

• At 12:25 p.m., Zinkhan returns armed with two handguns. Zinkhan shoots both weapons outside the theater, killing his wife, 47-year-old Marie E. Bruce, and Ben Teague, 63, both officers with the theater group; and Thomas Cole Tanner, 40, a performer in one of the productions. Two other people are wounded. Zinkhan then gets into a vehicle and drives off.

• After witnesses tell police Zinkhan is the gunman, UGA campus sends an alert at about 1:55 p.m., text messaging more than 25,000 in the school community that a professor is a suspect in the off-campus shooting.

• Zinkhan appears at neighbor Robert Covington’s home on Chesterfield Road with his two young children. He tells the neighbor he had an emergency and asks Covington to watch the children. Zinkhan then leaves.

• Late Saturday afternoon, Police and a SWAT team surround Zinkhan’s home at 372 Chesterfield Road. Officers on loudspeakers demand Zinkhan to come outside. After no response, they enter the house. No one is inside.

• A nationwide police alert is issued Saturday evening for Zinkhan and the 2005 red Jeep Liberty was last seen in. The Georgia license plate is AIX1376. Zinkhan is described as wearing a polo shirt and blue shorts.

• Police say early Sunday they are still searching for Zinkhan, who they say “could be anywhere.” They said they did not receive any tips, not did they track any cell-phone or credit card use.

– Compiled by Kent Miles.