A University of Georgia lacrosse player who was shot during an armed robbery at a bus stop near campus has been released from the hospital.
In a tweet, Tate Prezzano’s father, Dobbin Prezzano, announced the 22-year-old was discharged Saturday evening, nearly a week after he was taken to the hospital with serious injuries.
“Our gratitude for the prayers and support from family, friends, medical teams, law enforcement, and so many we don't even know is indescribable,” Dobbin Prezzano said.
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Tate Prezzano is part of UGA’s club lacrosse team and played lacrosse and football at Cambridge High School in Milton, AJC.com previously reported.
On April 22, as the junior communications major was waiting for a bus at an Athens bus stop, a man approached him, robbed him and shot him multiple times in the upper part of his body.
“Few incidents are more concerning than a young man standing at the bus stop, waiting to go to college, that is accosted by an armed assailant, robbed and shot,” Athens-Clarke County police Chief Cleveland Spruill said in a press conference soon after the shooting.
A second UGA student was also robbed at gunpoint near the bus stop, which is just south of campus and the Athens Perimeter. That student was not hurt in the incident, which occurred moments before Prezzano was shot.
He was able to give police a description of the robber used to create a sketch of the suspect. The sketch depicted the suspect with medium-length braids or dreads.
Credit: Athens-Clarke County Police Department
Credit: Athens-Clarke County Police Department
Not long after the sketch was released, GBI Special Agent Mike Ayers said tips started pouring in from community members.
Zarren Garner, 20, of Grayson, was arrested in Gwinnett County the next morning, authorities said. Spruill said they were able to identify Garner through a number of citizen tips and because of the man’s prior “low-level criminal background.”
MORE: Gwinnett man arrested in shooting of UGA lacrosse player from metro Atlanta
“They contacted us, they put us in the right direction, and they gave us the push forward to be able to develop a suspect and to be able to make an arrest in this case,” he said. “It is a prime example of what happens when people work collectively as a team. And that’s what we’ve had great success with in this investigation.”
Investigators believe Garner cut his braids off in order to hide from police, Channel 2 Action News reported.
Garner is being held without bond in the county jail on two counts each of aggravated assault and armed robbery.
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